Emily Denning

Emily Denning is from Atlanta, Georgia, where she attended North Atlanta High School. She is currently earning her Bachelor of Arts degree in Art with a concentration in Art History. For the past year, she has been interning at the May Patterson Goodrum House in Atlanta where she prepares condition reports and manages the collection database. Emily is planning to continue her work at the museum after her graduation.

In this paper, I argue that images of saints, priests, doctors, nurses, and other caregivers in the times of pandemics have represented these figures in acts of intervention to prevent or mitigate disease. I am supporting this argument first by analyzing how art invoking plague saints has been replaced by secular images celebrating the action of doctors and nurses during pandemics. Secondly that images produced during these periods chose to focus on the people who engaged with disease because these images focus on the ideal outcome of being healed. Lastly that art made during pandemics is used to demonstrate how to behave in accordance of community health guidelines.

Sacred and Profane Healers: The Visual Culture of Pandemics