In the context of this artwork, explain the Accuracy of the Interpretation.
Plague figures that seem to be portrayed accurately are the hungry baby being pulled away from his dead mother's breasts, so that the baby would not become infected with the plague from the blood and milk of the mother. These images are particularly disturbing because people at this time would have been comforted by seeing the Madonna feeding her suckling baby, a symbol of life and safety for Catholics and Christians. To see this baby torn away from the infected mother seems almost inhumane. Pestilence could then be seen as unprotected by the Madonna and as life threatening. The man saving the child is risking his own life by doing so, which shows the courageousness of this figure. Poussin may have put this figure there to amplify the deep anger the viewer was meant to feel when viewing parts of the Plague of Ashdod. One problematic figure in this painting is at the bottom of the statue of Dagon: there is a large relief that has yet to be interpreted. There is also a woman carrying a toddler to the right of the Ark being watched by another man, who has also not been identified. The identification of the group of men that accompany the staring man is also unknown. According to Boeckl, these figures do not directly relate to the Biblical passage about the Plague of Ashdod, so these figures must be portrayals of Poussin's own interpretation of the epidemic.
Madonna Dagon plague