Literature:     De Vesme/Massar (1971).89.II/III.

Provenance: G. Chiantorre, Torino, around 1870 (Lugt 540).

Strong impression, regularly and well inked, in the second of three states. On contemporary paper with the fragment of a watermark difficult to identify.

One of five plates with allegorical depictions of Death (De Vesme/Massar 87-91) by Stefano della Bella. The series was printed in France, a modern interpretation of the ‘Dance of Death’ so much in fashion in the late Middle Ages. Death is depicted in the centre running, carrying on his back a child gesturing with his left hand. In the background we see a cemetery-monument for dead children in Paris that still exists today, the famous charnel house of the Holy Innocents at Les Halles.