Beauty meets Horror: The motif of death and the maiden in early modern art

The motif of ‘death and the maiden’ was largely restricted to Germany. From around 1500  it occurs in numerous drawings, paintings, prints and even in sculpture. Such images show young beautiful women surprised by death. The encounter frequently is of an erotic nature and the women’s reactions range from pure horror to a seductive welcome. It is a widespread belief that the motif originates from dance-of-death-cycles. Starting with Hans Sebald Beham’s print ‘Death and the sleeping woman’ (1548), this paper will explore other pictorial traditions such as depictions of vanity and voluptuousness. It will also examine the changing treatments of the motif between 1480 and 1550.