Death and the Maiden (motif)

Death and the Maiden (Der Tod und das Mädchen in German) was a common motif in Renaissance art, especially painting and prints in Germany. The usual form shows just two figures, with a young woman being seized by a personification of Death, often shown as a skeleton. Variants may include other figures. It developed from the Danse Macabre with an added erotic subtext. The German artist Hans Baldung depicted it several times.[1]

Hans Baldung, Death and the Maiden, 1517

The motif was revived during the romantic era in the arts, a notable example being Franz Schubert's song "Der Tod und das Mädchen", setting a poem by the German poet Matthias Claudius. Part of the piano part was re-used in Schubert's famous String Quartet No. 14, which is therefore also known by this title, in either English or German.[1]

• 
  Hans Baldung Grien, 1509–11, Vienna
• 
  Hans Burgkmair, Lovers Surprised by Death, 1510
• 
  Chiaroscuro woodcut by Niklaus Manuel Deutsch I, 1517
• 
  Boxwood carving by Hans Schwarz, c. 1520
• 
  Small engraving by Barthel Beham, 1547
• 
  La jeune fille et la mort by Henri-Léopold Lévy, 1900
• 
  Elna Borch, 1905, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen
• 
  Heinrich Hoerle, c. 1919