Plague in an Ancient City

The painting is believed to be a reduced copy of the work with the same title in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. That painting, which is oil on canvas and measures 46 3/4 by 67 1/4 in. (118.7 by 170.8 cm.), has been dated to circa 1650 when Sweerts was still residing in Rome.

Lindsey Shaw-Miller has examined the present painting firsthand and believes that, though it post-dates the Los Angeles version, it is of roughly the same period, and that Sweerts himself may have painted parts of it. The technique in certain areas, such as the women in the foreground, is convincing as by Sweerts himself, whereas other areas, such as some of the faces and draperies of the background figures are more generalized and less convincing. She speculates that, possibly, while the larger version was still in Sweerts' studio in Rome, the smaller version could have been executed partly by him and partly by students, as a type of instructive exercise for his pupils.