My (humble) ART Collection (Selected)
This is the sixth and final plate from the series, 'Auch Ein Todtentanz' (This too, is a Dance of Death). Edition was publish 1849 by George Wigand.
Series revisits the medieval 'Danse Macabre' tradition--where skeletons interact with the living to reflect on mortality (memento mori)----but recontextualises it within the German Revolutions of 1848-1849.
In this climatic scene, Death is portrayed as a mock hero. Crowned with laurel and holding a white flag attached to his scythe, he rides a horse over a barricade of fallen revolutionaries. A chilling detail; the horse licks the wound of a dead insurgent, emphasizing the cold, unfeeling nature of the 'liberty' found in death. The series serves as a conservative, counter-revolutionary warning that radical upheaval only leads to the grave.