How did the plague affected artistic production in 14th centry Italy

The Black Death (bubonic plague) hit Italy the hardest out of Europe, with the death toll as high as 50 to 60 percent. It had a major effect on art throughout the 5 or so years the plague was around. It inspired religious bequests and encouraged the commissioning of devotional images. Humanism emerged during the 14^th century and became a central component of much of Italian art and culture in the 15^th and 16^th centuries. Humanism−mainly the renewed interest in the classical−was a necessary part of Italian Renaissance art and culture that developed in the 14^th century and reached its peak in the 15^th and 16^th centuries.