10 Grim Themes Of Death In Western Art Art is often thematic—artists have explored common ideas in different mediums and from different perspectives all through the ages. In the Middle Ages, starting around the 14th century, art took a turn toward the dark when the plague known as the Black Death descended upon Europe like the apocalypse itself. This period was often filled with despair and hopelessness, and for the first time, several different themes revolving around death were developed or more heavily explored. 10Plague Art It is impossible to understate the effect that the Black Death had on medieval society. Peaking in Europe somewhere between 1348 and 1350 with additional outbreaks in 1361 and the 1430s, the plague was a bacillus that could be contracted by the bite of an infected flea or rat or through the air, depending on the variety. The first wave of the Black Death killed an estimated 25–50 percent of Europe’s population.