Sleeping child with hourglass and four skulls, by Beham (1512, c.)

Sleeping child with hourglass and four skulls, by Beham (1512, c.)

Original title: Slapend kind met zandloper en vier schedels ("Sleeping child with hourglass and four skulls").

The engraving represents a naked baby boy sleeping with his hands on his chest on the top left corner. Next to him, an hourglass. on the right and bottom part of the engraving, four skulls and three femurs appear.

Gender perspective: The Latin inscription reads "Death makes everything the same". This undifferentiating role of the death contrasts with the displayed masculine sex of the young boy and is echoed the indeterminate gender of the skulls. Also, the adult skulls contrast with the youth of the boy. One of the skulls is in the same position as his resting head. The use of neutral in Latin "omnia" implies the loss of the category of gender that is echoed in the fragmentation of skulls without the jaws.

Beham, Barthel (1502-1540)

Rijksmuseum, Netherlands.
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/RP-P-OB-4202

http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.30930

Archived in:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200603232845/https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/RP-P-OB-4202

Object Number: RP-P-OB-4202

Also found in Europeana:
https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/90402/RP_P_OB_4201

Identifier:
http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.30929

Collection name: 90402_M_NL_Rijksmuseum

1512, c.

Engraving.
Dimensions: 5.2 × 7.6 cm