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

Healing, Knowing, Seeing the Body

The Dance of Death is a Medieval allegory illustrating the inevitability and equalizing power of death. The allegory portrays Death as a skeleton watching over people in their daily lives. The concept became popular in the late Middle Ages as a way to cope with the widespread loss of life caused by the Black Plague. Subsequent artistic depictions reminded people that neither social status nor wealth could overcome mortality. Death was sometimes depicted as menacing or mocking, as in Rethel’s example, where Death has crashed a masked ball and assumed center stage with a violin made of bones after claiming the lives of the elite in attendance. Other times, Death was portrayed as a watchful companion, as in Beham’s print, reminding us that we should not take the time we have for granted.

Healing, Knowing, Seeing the Body

Corpus - Project Redefine: Phase 2

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.

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.