Mercenaries and a Woman with Death in a Tree

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.