Monk Old Woman

 
Nun  
 

The Nun

T he nun kneels in front of the altar, but turns her head (and attention) towards the young musician, who's sitting in her bed. Death, dressed as an old hag, steps in and extinguishes her candle.

The hourglass is overturned and cracked, so the sand runs out.

Variations: Birckmann turns the top of the altar into a semicircle; The nun's humble bed is decorated with a fabulous monster with bare breasts. Valvasor, Hollar and Deuchar imitates Birckmann.
Scharffenberg places the musician outdoor.
Valvasor removes the musician!

Holbein's Imagines Mortis: nun
Les Simulachres (1538)
Vogtherr 1544: nun
Vogtherr (1544)
Birckmann 1555: nun
Birckmann (1555)
Scharffenberg 1578: nun
Scharffenberg (1578)
Eberhard Kieser imaginibus: nun
Eberhard Kieser (1617)
Hollar 1651: nun
Hollar (1651)
Theatrum mortis humanae tripartitum: nun
Valvasor (1682)
Mechel 1780: nun
Mechel (1780)
Deuchar 1788: nun
Deuchar (1788)
Hollar coloured 1816: nun
Hollar coloured (1816)
Bechstein 1831: nun
Bechstein (1831)

Monk Old Woman Up to Holbein's great dance of death