Death and the Maiden

Although the mirror is traditionally associated with self-knowledge and wisdom, here it serves to foster the girl’s sense of oblivion as she distractedly combs her hair. Her youthful body is embraced from behind in a gesture that might be described as tender were it not being given by a skeleton. The deathly figure adds to the sinister aspect of the scene by turning his skull forward rather than back towards the beautiful girl, fixing the viewer with his unnervingly ambiguous gaze. The work serves as a fine example of Baldung’s predilection for combining horror and eroticism in allegories that typically ponder universal themes, as can also be seen in his depictions of witches. The work is also testament to the artist’s technical mastery, employing black and white hatching less to superimpose figures on the sheet than to have them emerge out of the coloured ground.