plague death hilt scabbard engraving NLS

The Triumph of Death was a fairly common theme for late medieval artists. Like the another theme, Memento Mori, it was intended to remind viewers of mortality and death. Triumph of Death often depicts an army of skeletons massacring people of every age and gender. Sometimes, a wild carnivalesque atmosphere was emphasized in the popular motif of the Danse Macabre, or Dance of Death. Understanding the macabre spirit of death-culture in late medieval Europe requires an understanding of the terror and panic of epidemic disease, and, more generally, a fear of catastrophe and sudden death. The population of the medieval world experienced death first-hand: wide-scale death, physical decay, and the subsequent crumbling of societal infrastructure. The Black Death was the period in Europe from approximately 1347 to 1353, when bubonic plague ravaged and initiated a long-term period of cultural trauma. In fourteenth-century Europe, the mortality rate from plague was between 50% and 90% of those people who contracted the disease. The most recent works increase estimates of the total population loss to 65% in both Asia and Europe. Previous estimates state that about one-third of the population died from the disease in the years spanning the Black Death.

Here we have strange, weird and wonderful prints and paintings by Medieval and Renaissance artists. Sometimes it is difficult to explain the scene, the whole thing just seems so ridiculous, and we get a good laugh out of it.

• Feudalismo para o 7º ano (parte 2) - Apreender História
• A dança macabra | José A. Fernandes
• 畸形之美？矫饰主义？巴洛克珍珠与十六世纪的意大利风情 - 搜狐
• 畸形之美？矯飾主義？巴洛克珍珠與十六世紀的意大利風情 - 雪花新闻
• “Пляска смерти” в истории
• O fim da idade media e o renascimento comercial e urbano.