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Mortalia Facta Peribunt [Made Mortal They Must Die or Death Surprising a Woman]
Primary
Monogrammist M
(active circa 1500–1550)
NationalityItalian, Europe
Datecirca 1500-1525
MediumEngraving
DimensionsSheet: 16 1/4 × 12 5/16 in. (41.2 × 31.2 cm)
Additional Dimension: 14 × 9 13/16 in. (35.5 × 25 cm)
Additional Dimension: 14 × 9 13/16 in. (35.5 × 25 cm)
Credit LineBlanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Archer M. Huntington Museum Fund, 1983.119
Keywords
Rights Statement
Collection AreaPrints and Drawings
Object number1983.119
On View
Not on viewIn this Italian, classicizing interpretation of the vanitas theme so popular in printmaking throughout Europe in the early sixteenth century, a vain young woman spends her time admiring herself in a mirror, unaware of death as he peers at her from behind the glass. On the ground is a wing that symbolizes her fame and a wheel that represents her fortune earned with her sensual body. Death holds an hourglass to remind the viewer that the maiden’s good looks are temporary. In time, she will belong to Death.
Neither the designer nor the engraver of this print is known, but they are evidently inspired by Michelangelo’s conception of the body and Marcantonio Raimondi’s style of reproductive engraving. These characteristics indicate the print was surely created in Rome in the second quarter of the sixteenth century.
Exhibitions
