Image of Death (Imago Mortis), from the Nuremberg Chronicle
c. 1493
Medium
Handcolored woodcut in black on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Block: 19.4 × 22.5 cm (7 11/16 × 8 7/8 in.); Sheet: 44.5 × 30.8 cm (17 9/16 × 12 3/16 in.)
Classification
woodcut
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
51535
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
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 w...