The Plague at Ashdod

Poussin painted The Plague at Ashdod around 1630, depicting the biblical episode in which the Ark of the Covenant, captured by the Philistines and placed in the temple of Dagon, caused a plague to devastate the city. The composition — bodies of plague victims scattered across a classical architectural setting, the living fleeing in horror — was influenced by Raphael's Plague of the Phrygians cartoon and established a visual tradition for depicting urban plague that would be continued by Michel Serre and others in the eighteenth century. The archaeological precision of the classical setting, derived from Poussin's extensive study of ancient Roman architecture and relief sculpture, contrasts with the raw human suffering depicted within it.

The elaborate composition arranges groups of dying, mourning, and fleeing figures across a classical architectural setting, with Poussin's study of expression and gesture creating a catalogue of human responses to catastrophe.