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Georg Pencz

The Triumph of Death

1533-1543

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Georg Pencz

The Triumph of Death

1533-1543

Physical Qualities Engraving, Sheet (trimmed within platemark): 148 x 208 mm. (5 13/16 x 8 3/16 in.)
Credit Line Garrett Collection
Object Number 1946.112.5692
The subject of the Triumphs, a set of poems by the fourteenth-century Italian humanist Petrarch, became popular in Northern Europe after translations of the poems became available around 1500. Petrarch’s Triumphs describes a series of visions in which one figure triumphs over the next in succession (Love, Chastity, Death, Fame, Time, and Eternity). Taken together, these poems were understood to be an allegory of the salvation of the soul. Georg Pencz conceived of Petrarch’s poems as a series of six victories or processions, each overseen by an allegorical figure (or Christ in the final Triumph of Eternity) surrounded by appropriate attendants.

Inscribed: Recto: in image, lower left, in plate ".5."; in image, lower center, in plate "NASCENTES. MORIMUR. FINIS. QZ. AB. ORIGINE PENDET. / LONGIUS. AUT PROPIUS. MORS. SUA. QUENOZ. MANET."; in image, lower right, in plate monogram "GP" Verso: lower left in graphite diamond with "2418 / 5"

Markings: CM: Claghorn; Garrett

Artist

Georg Pencz

1499–1549

German, c. 1500-1550
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