Description:
two story building to left attached to one story stable, a groom leads a horse into the stable, barrels visible inside arch of tall building, a robe hangs in the 2nd floor window, a man is in bed at upper right edge surrounded by three devils, one pointing into building, another gesturing toward the same building and a third pointing toward four figures and a child in the upper left corner of the image; there are two banners with text: "Provideas amicis" (Provide for your friends- upper banner) and "Intende thesauro" (Increase your material goods - lower banner).
Label Text:
This is the nineteenth page and ninth plate of the blockbook Ars moriendi, showing the dying man in his bed surrounded by three devils who are reminding him of his worldly possessions. His family stands behind his bed, while visible in the foreground is the man's house, with clothing hanging in the windows, a servant in the wine cellar and a stable with horse and groom. The insinuations of the devils can be read on two banderoles: "Provideas amicis" (Provide for your friends) and "Intende thesauro" (Increase your material goods). Additional writing on this object can be found at
Paper + People the Cunningham Center Blog.
Other label: The Ars Moriendi was conceived as a “manual” on the art of dying well. This is an illustrated page from such a book highlighting the medieval culture of death, which sprang up in Northern Europe around the time of the Black Plague. The page shown here is a fifteenth-century woodcut mounted on an oak panel. The book originally contained six chapters, which addressed the various elements of a good Christian death, from what to feel, to how to behave, and which prayers to choose. The work was very popular at the time and was widely distributed and translated into many languages.
The dying man is shown surrounded by his family and friends, as well as by devils and his worldly possessions in the form of his house, his horse and servant, and a room filled with wooden chests. On his deathbed the man is confronted with a moral dilemma posed to him by two Latin banners. One reads “Provideas amicis" (provide for your friends) while the other reads "Intende thesauro" (increase your material goods).
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+2005.20 |
