Allegory of Vanity (Death Surprising a Woman), by an Italian artist (1550, c.)

Allegory of Vanity (Death Surprising a Woman), by an Italian artist (1550, c.)

This engraving represents a naked young woman looking at herself in a mirror. On the background, death represented by a male skeleton with an hourglass looks at her.

Gender perspective: This engraving is a curious deviation of the tradition of seeing one's own skull in a mirror. However, the mirror and the same element of surprise are present. Death, a male figure, appears as a voyeuristic interloper who surprises a young woman in her toilette. Her muscular figure and the way she examines her back instead of her front, where the strongest sexual markers are placed, makes this engraving a peculiar representation of death as seducer or rapist of women. Other allegorical symbols, such as the wheel of fortune and a wing representing perhaps fame, are also part of this unusual engraving.

Italian artist (active 1550, c.)

1550, c.

Engraving.
Dimensions: 35.9 × 25.2 cm