Depending on the region of Europe that you're talking about, the Black Death killed between 40 and 70% of people. That's huge. Imagine that for a second: 70% of everyone that you have ever met dying. Something that big makes an impact on every crevice and aspect of society. Let's just take Europe's art world as an example of one aspect of society that was affected by the Black Death: The Effect of the Black Death on Visual Art: Before the Black Death paintings and visual art is often very religious, sometimes depicting images of death.