Death and the Lady

Sebald Beham, artist

1500–1550

Death and the Lady, 1541

Where object was made: Holy Roman Empire (present-day Germany)

Material/technique: laid paper; engraving

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 78 x 51 mm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 3 1/16 x 2 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 14 x 11 in

Credit line: Museum purchase: Letha Churchill Walker Memorial Art Fund

Accession number: 1984.0163

Not on display

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Images

Label texts

Exhibition Label:
"Corpus," Apr-2012, Kris Ercums
The lover as fool was a popular motif in Renaissance prints. Beham chillingly distorts the idea by casting Death as a young woman’s admirer. The hourglass he shows her and the Latin inscription reading “All in mankind that is beautiful death abolishes” serve as reminders that life is fleeting, as is physical beauty itself.

Archive Label 2003:
Sebald Beham was one of the “German Little Masters” who specialized in miniature engravings in Nuremberg. Perhaps realizing that Dürer was an impossible act to follow, they took his engraving style and applied it to a small format that must have appealed to collectors. Their subject matter often included erotic subjects and scenes of peasant life.

Exhibition Label:
"Time/Frame," Jun-2008, Robert Fucci, Shuyun Ho, Lauren Kernes, Lara Kuykendall, Ellen C. Raimond, and Stephanie Teasley
The lover as fool was a popular theme in Renaissance prints, which Beham here distorts in chilling fashion by putting Death in the role of the young woman’s admirer. The hourglass being shown to her, along with the Latin inscription: “All in mankind that is beautiful death abolishes,” serve as reminders that not only is life fleeting, but so is physical beauty itself.