Pieter Bruegel the Elder
The Triumph of Death
c. 1562
Pieter Bruegel the Elder's 'The Triumph of Death' (c. 1562) is a 1.17 × 1.62 m panel crowded with apocalyptic detail: armies of skeletons sweep across a scorched landscape and a burning sea, impassively mowing down kings, cardinals, lovers, peasants, and fools alike. A gigantic coffin rolls forward herding the living into a vast rat-trap of death at the lower right. Rooted in the medieval 'Danse Macabre' tradition and reflecting the shock of war, plague, and Reformation violence in 16th-century Flanders, it is the most encompassing apocalyptic allegory in all of Western painting.
Exhibition Venue
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