Title
Allegory of Vanity (Death Surprising a Woman), by an Italian artist (1550, c.)
Description
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.
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.
Creator
Italian artist (active 1550, c.)
Source
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, US.
https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.46310.html
Archived in:
https://web.archive.org/web/20190828013756/https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.46310.html
Accession Number: 1961.17.6
https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.46310.html
Archived in:
https://web.archive.org/web/20190828013756/https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.46310.html
Accession Number: 1961.17.6
Date
1550, c.
Format
Engraving.
Dimensions: 35.9 × 25.2 cm
Dimensions: 35.9 × 25.2 cm
Item Relations
This item has no relations.
Comments