From Death to Print: Marcantonio Raimandi‘s Morbetto and the Power of Engraving in Raphael‘s Rome

The Morbetto, or Plague in Crete, designed by Raphael and engraved by Marcantonio Raimondi, juxtaposes the pestilence described in Virgils Aeneid with the ruinous state of Romes ancient remains in the Renaissance. This article examines this exceptional collaboration between the artist and engraver in light of early modern medical knowledge of contagion and an emerging discourse on the preservation of Roman ruins. It argues that the tonal properties of engraving and reproducible nature of print are integral to the meaning of the Morbetto, an image in which new artistic creation arises from a cultural landscape dominated by the fragmentary heritage of the past.