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Original fileAllegory of Love, Time, and Death
About This Work
This engraving depicts a classical scene of vanity and mortality, where Time presents a mirror to two lovers lost in an embrace. In the background, a skeleton representing Death looms within a dark grotto, watching the couple. The contrast between the central figures' erotic intimacy and the surrounding symbols of aging, fleeting beauty, and death creates a stark warning about the transient nature of worldly pleasure.
The work serves as a classic memento mori, linking the Neoplatonic anxiety regarding sensory entrapment—symbolized by the mirror and the lovers' earthly attachment—to the inevitable dissolution of the physical body. It reflects the 16th-century preoccupation with the 'vanitas' theme, frequently explored in both secular emblem books and moralizing esoteric treatises of the period.
Inscriptions(Latin)
Hier. W. fecit. Geo. ab haen exc. Luxuries predulce malum, cui tempus et error Accelerant fatum, multos inexuit hamis, Membraq. Circæis effeminat acrius herbis.
Translation
Hieronymus Wierix made this. Gillis van Haen published this. Luxury is a very sweet evil, for whom time and error Accelerate fate, it has entangled many with hooks, And weakens the limbs more sharply with Circean herbs.
Connected Texts
Petrarch
The allegorical treatment of Time and Death reflects themes central to Petrarch's 'Trionfi' (Triumphs), which deeply influenced Renaissance interpretations of mortality.
Collections
Provenance & Source
Object
Engraving on ivory laid paper
allegory
Digital Source
Unknown · Public domain
Linked Data
AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3.1-flash-lite-preview on April 15, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.