MASKS OF MORTALITY: PLAGUE DOCTORS AND THE BLACK DEATH

In a grim epoch of devastating pestilence, as the Black Death ripped across Europe, a chilling specter emerged from the shadows: the plague doctor. Wearing a long, macabre coat of oiled cloth and a unusual mask designed from leather, he became a symbol of both fear and illusory hope. They masks, often bearing peepholes, were imagined to filter the