The Plague in Rome

This is probably a study for Delaunay's most famous painting, a large canvas he exhibited in 1869, but which had its genesis during Delaunay's period of study in Rome (1856-61). The artist took inspiration from a passage in Jacobus de Voragine's 13th-century 'Golden Legend', which describes how divine vengeance brought a plague to Rome. In the painting, plague-stricken figures lie in torment in the streets, while to the right, a good angel commands the bad angel to strike with his spear the homes where the plague will enter.