print
- Museum number
- 1891,1015.5
- Description
-
The Lady and Death; whole-length female figure in profile to right, behind her death in a fool's costume, presenting her with flowers and an hourglass; a low embankment with a flower in a vase at r. 1541
Engraving
- Production date
- 1541
- Dimensions
-
Height: 78 millimetres
-
Width: 51 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This engraving copied after a Beham etching of the Lady and the Fool dated 1540 (Pauli 149). The composition identical except for the change of the fool figure into a representation of death.
See G. Bartrum, 'German Renaissance Prints', exh. cat., BM, London 1995, no.101.
BM also has impressions of the second and third state, see 1868,0822.235 and 1931,0511.17.
Text from Bartrum 1995
Literature: Bartsch, 149; Pauli, 150 I; Hollstein, p.90
This engraving was copied after the latest etching that Sebald produced, the 'Lady and the Fool' dated 1540 (Pauli 149). The composition is identical except that Sebald has altered the face of the lady's companion to that of a Death's head. Both works offer a witty interpretation of a theme commonly seen in northern art, the elegantly dressed woman, or couple, threatened by Death, as for example in Dürer's engraving the 'Promenade' of c. 1496, in which a figure of Death lurks in the background (Dodgson 9) and his 'Coat of Arms with a Skull' of 1503 (1868,0822.200). The theme is also seen in the work of, among others, Hans Baldung Grien and Niklaus Manuel Deutsch.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1995 Jun-Oct, BM, 'German Renaissance Prints, 1490-1550', no.101
- Acquisition date
- 1891
- Acquisition notes
- Acquired with other prints from Messrs Deprez and Gutekunst in exchange for duplicates.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1891,1015.5
