A skull, a skeleton, candles and other symbols of mortality. Engraving attributed to G. Altzenbach, [16--].

  • Altzenbach, Gerhard, active 1609-1672.
Date:
[between 1600 and 1699]
Reference:
5i
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view A skull, a skeleton, candles and other symbols of mortality. Engraving attributed to G. Altzenbach, [16--].

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Credit

A skull, a skeleton, candles and other symbols of mortality. Engraving attributed to G. Altzenbach, [16--]. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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About this work

Description

Left of the skull, an hourglass. Right of the skull, a sundial. Extreme left and right, candles in candleholders. Below, a skeleton recumbent in the tomb, with a bat, an owl, toads and worms.

Publication/Creation

[Cologne] : G. Altzenbach, [between 1600 and 1699]

Physical description

1 print : engraving ; 28.5 x 20.5 cm

Contributors

Lettering

G. Altzenbach exc. Lettering: below skull "Stipendium peccati MORS". Above skeleton "Hodie mihi cras tibi". Around candleholders "consumor". Below image one line (Ecclesiasticus X verse 11) in Latin and German. At foot three sets of eight verses in German, Latin and French.

References note

Not in Hollstein
W. Schupbach, The Iconographic Collections of the Wellcome Institute Library, London 1989, pp. 21, 55

Reference

Wellcome Collection 5i

Creator/production credits

Thieme-Becker records two engravers in Cologne named G. Altzenbach: Gerhard and his successor Wilhelm (Gulielmus). The date of the present print depends on the choice between the two. Wilhelm is documented in 1680.

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