Mercenaries and a Woman with Death in a Tree
Medium
woodcut
Dimensions
image: 20.2 × 11.7 cm · sheet: 20.2 × 11.7 cm
Classification
Department
Prints
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Dudley P. Allen Fund
Accession Number
1942.118
Tags
male
About this artwork
Two Swiss mercenaries and a woman meet outside a city at a prominent tree. The woman’s immodest dress, glance, and proximity to a money bag imply that she is sexually available, as does the soldier’s suggestively placed sword. Death makes an appearance as a skeleton, conjoining sin with death (for it was believed that overindulgence in carnal love led to peril). The Swiss Confederacy during the 1500s was a culture of mercenary warfare. Women traveled with regiments of soldiers, earning meager wa...