Name: Child with three Skulls & Sleeping Child with four Skulls ('MORS OMNIA AEQUAT')
Brand: BARTHEL BEHAM (1502-1540)
Price: 8500.00 USD
Availability: SoldOut

BARTHEL BEHAM (1502-1540)
Child with three Skulls & Sleeping Child with four Skulls ('MORS OMNIA AEQVAT')
two engravings, 1529 and circa 1528-30, on laid paper, without watermarks, slightly later impressions of these tiny rare prints, the first an impression of the only state, the second an impression of the third, final state, both with thread margins in places or trimmed just inside the platemark, generally in good condition (2)
Sheet 42 x 58 mm.
Sheet 55 x 77 mm.

References:
Pauli, Hollstein 35 & 36
Bartsch 27 & 28

Please note this lot is the property of a private collector.

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Lot Essay

The inscription on the second print, MORS OMNIA AEQVAT, means 'Death equals All'. The reason for the inclusion of a sleeping baby in both these memento mori-prints is not obvious, although together the child and the skulls symbolise the beginning and end of life. It seems possible that Barhel Beham, who appears to have been a follower of the radical reform preacher Thomas Müntzer, is also suggesting that humankind is not just equal in death but born equal.