Image of Death (Imago Mortis), from the Nuremberg Chronicle

Art Institute of Chicago

Image of Death (Imago Mortis), from the Nuremberg Chronicle

Michael Wolgemut and WorkshopLinkedCulture matchlcp-1436cf31f117

Date
c. 1493
Medium
Handcolored woodcut in black on cream laid paper
Culture
Germany
Department
Prints and Drawings
Institution
Art Institute of Chicago
Object ID
51535

From the Art Institute of Chicago record

This brightly colored leaf from The Nuremberg Chronicle shows five cheerful skeletons and decaying cadavers dancing, playing music, and emerging from a grave. One tosses its bluish entrails about like a dress train, while others rattle dry bones. Fingerprints appear on the right side of this evidently well-thumbed page. A user also bracketed the text below that begins, “Nothing is better than death,” underscoring the importance of the memento mori (Remember you must die) message offered by the work. The Nuremberg Chronicle was also available uncolored, in black and white.

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Credit line
Joseph Brooks Fair Fund

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Object type
AAT300041273

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