Death surprising a woman
Monogrammist M Italian
Not on view
An unusual fusion of traditional vanitas imagery with sophisticated Renaissance Neoplatonism, this image recalls depictions of young women vainly admiring their fleeting charms as Death creeps up behind them. The woman represented here, however, is not contemplating the beauty of her back but noticing that her wings have fallen-one lies near her feet. Plato, in his Phaedrus, wrote, "The immortal soul soars upward into heaven, but the mortal drops her plumes and settles upon the earth." The woman is thus recognizing her own mortality-a recognition reinforced by the grisly figure of Death with his hourglass.
It has been suggested that the M in the cartouche refers to Michelangelo as the source of the design. His influence is apparent in the woman's serpentine pose, modeled on the Florentine artist's Dying Slave for the tomb of Pope Julius II
