In my end is my beginning

The article examines the impact of the 1630 plague epidemic in Milan, an event that profoundly shaped the city’s history and was poetically depicted by Alessandro Manzoni. While much research has focused on the social and historical consequences, less attention has been given to the rise of a new generation of artists during this time.These artists, trained under Giovanni Battista Crespi il Cerano (1573-1632) and the Accademia Ambrosiana, experienced the epidemic firsthand. They guarded the city gates and witnessed the deaths of their mentors, friends, and fellow students while continuing to create paintings and engravings. These surviving artists like Melchiorre Gherardini, Gerolamo Chignoli, Carlo Biffi, and Ercole Procaccini the Younger carried forward the legacy of the Borromean masters while staying true to their tradition and their work influenced Milanese art for the next two decades. By analyzing key artworks from this period, this study explores the connection between painters and the plague – both as witnesses and as creators of representations of the crisis – challenging the traditional view of the epidemic as merely destructive, instead presenting it as a catalyst for artistic renewal and transformation in Milan’s art history.