Death and the Maiden (motif)

For other uses, see Death and the Maiden (disambiguation).

Death and the Maiden (Der Tod und das Mädchen in German) was a common motif in Renaissance art, especially in German painting and printmaking. The usual form shows just two figures, with a young woman being seized by a personification of Death, often shown as a skeleton. Variants may include other figures. It developed from the Danse Macabre with an added erotic subtext. The German artist Hans Baldung depicted it several times.^[1]

Boxwood carving by Hans Schwarz, c. 1520. Bode Museum, Berlin

The motif was revived during the romantic era in the arts, a notable example being Franz Schubert's song "Der Tod und das Mädchen", setting a poem by the German poet Matthias Claudius. Part of the piano part was re-used in Schubert's famous String Quartet No. 14, which is therefore also known by this title, in either English or German.^[1]

Selected versions

• Painting: Death and the Maiden (Der Tod und das Mädchen) by Hans Baldung (1517)
• Painting: Death and the Maiden (Der Tod und das Mädchen) by Niklaus Manuel Deutsch I (1517)
• Painting: Young Woman and Death (La jeune fille et la mort) by Henri-Léopold Lévy (1876)
• Engraving: Death and the Maiden (Døden og Piken) by Edvard Munch (1894)
• Painting: Death and the Maiden (Der Tod und das Mädchen) by Adolf Hering (1900) - private collection, location unknown
• Painting: Death and the Maiden by Marianne Stokes (1908)
• Painting: Death and the Maiden (Tod und Mädchen) by Egon Schiele (1915)
• Drawing: Death and the Maiden (Der Tod und das Mädchen) by Clara Siewert (1920s)
• Drawing: Death and the Maiden (Der Tod und das Mädchen) by Joseph Beuys (1959)
• Painting: Death and the Maiden, Ballet for Two by Herbert Lautman (1995)

Gallery

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  Hans Burgkmair, Lovers Surprised by Death, 1510. Art Institute of Chicago
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  Hans Baldung, Death and the Maiden, 1517. Kunstmuseum Basel
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  Chiaroscuro woodcut by Niklaus Manuel Deutsch I, 1517. Kunstmuseum Basel
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  Small engraving by Barthel Beham, 1547
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  La jeune fille et la mort by Henri-Léopold Lévy, 1876. Museum of Fine Arts of Nancy
•  
  Edvard Munch, Death and Life, 1894. Munch Museum, Oslo
•  
  Elna Borch, 1905. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen
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  Death and the Maiden, by Egon Schiele, 1915. Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna
•  
  Heinrich Hoerle, c. 1919
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  Herbert Lautman, Death and the Maiden, Ballet for Two (1995)

Notes

1. Le Mort dans l'Art

External links

•   Media related to Death and the maiden at Wikimedia Commons
• Death and the Maiden @ La Mort dans l'Art