The Plague of Ashdod is also known as The Miracle of the Ark in the Temple of Dagon, by the French artist Nicolas Poussin.

Fabrizio Valguarnera was a Sicilian merchant who was put on trial for laundering money through the purchase of this painting; he also commissioned more than one version of this piece.

Poussin symbolized this lack of loyalty by portraying a man ripping a child away from the corpse of the baby's mother.

This might possibly lead to this man's own demise just like that of a child so attached to his or her own mother would become infected with the plague and die as well.

And when the men of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not stay here with us, because His hand is heavy upon us and upon our god Dagon.” Poussin himself called this art piece; "II miraculo dell'Arca nel tempio di Agon," meaning The Miracle of the Ark in the Temple of Dagon.

[3] Because this Ark had been stolen, it was believed that plagues sent by the God of Israel ravaged the city, riddling the people with disease and death.

Poussin's depictions of the people gesturing to cover their noses show his belief at the time that the breath of plague victims could have been contagious, or possibly the fact that the stench coming from the dying and diseased people was so bad that others had to cover their noses in order to avoid the stench.

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.

Ann Sutherland Harris writes that the London version of The Plague of Ashdod was used by Fabrizio Valguarnera to launder money from stolen jewels.

[1] According to Sheila Baker, Fabriozo Valguarnera was indeed seeking to launder his money through paintings when he visited Poussin's workshop in 1631.

It was clearly an attempt by the artist to prove his talent, both in the depiction of a historical scene of epic proportions that encompasses a broad range of emotional and in the depiction of psychological states, following the grand classicizing style of his older French contemporary and fellow-resident in Rome, Poussin.

[7] Another Flemish painter, Peter van Halen painted in 1661 the Plague of the Philistines at Ashdod (signed and dated 1661, Wellcome Library), which was inspired by Poussin's treatment of the same subject, which he may have known through an etching.