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Mercenaries and a Woman with Death in a Tree

Urs Graf1524

The Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States

Two Swiss mercenaries and a woman meet
outside a city at a prominent tree. The woman’s
immodest dress, glance, and proximity to a
money bag imply that she is sexually available, as does the soldier’s suggestively placed sword.
Death makes an appearance as a skeleton,
conjoining sin with death (for it was believed
that overindulgence in carnal love led to peril).
The Swiss Confederacy during the 1500s was a
culture of mercenary warfare. Women traveled
with regiments of soldiers, earning meager
wages as servants, cooks, or sex workers. Urs
Graf
, a soldier himself, made many images

ridiculing the situation.

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Download this artwork (provided by The Cleveland Museum of Art).
Learn more about this artwork.
  • Title: Mercenaries and a Woman with Death in a Tree
  • Creator: Urs Graf the Elder (Swiss, c. 1485–1527/29)
  • Date Created: 1524
  • Physical Dimensions: Image: 20.2 x 11.7 cm (7 15/16 x 4 5/8 in.); Sheet: 20.2 x 11.7 cm (7 15/16 x 4 5/8 in.)
  • Type: Print
  • Rights: CC0
  • External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/1942.118
  • Medium: woodcut
  • Fun Fact: Urs Graf was a Swiss professional soldier, or mercenary, who made many images of soldiers and camp followers, such as the woman featured here.
  • Department: Prints
  • Culture: Switzerland
  • Credit Line: Dudley P. Allen Fund
  • Collection: PR - Woodcut
  • Accession Number: 1942.118
The Cleveland Museum of Art

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