Close encounters with death: changing representations of women in Renaissance art and literature
Dagmar Eichberger
Eichberger, Dagmar, "Close encounters with death: changing representations of women in Renaissance art and literature", dans Muir, Bernard James (éd.), Reading texts and images : essays on medieval and renaissance art and patronage ; in honour of Margaret M. Manion. Exeter, 2002, p. 273-296.
Extrait de l’article
Death is a recurrent theme in art and literature; as would be expected it is often incorporated into commemorative forms of art such as tomb sculpture, portraiture and altarpieces. During the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance one specific representation, the Dance of Death, gained immensely in popularity; images depicting the personification of Death were seen in both public and private places. In the first section of this paper, I will examine the composition and development of the Dance of Death theme between 1400 and 1530; in the second, I will investigate how this theme was developed further and adapted to other subjects, such as ’Death and the Maiden’ - and image that captured the imagination of artists, writers and musicians well into the nineteenth century.