De bruut

A disheveled man with wild hair and a skeletal frame grabs a young woman who is dressed in contemporary 15th-century attire. The woman attempts to push him away while holding up her heavy skirts in a landscape featuring a small tree and distant buildings. A large, curving scroll arcs through the sky but remains blank, intended to carry a moralizing message that was never engraved.

This work is an early example of the 'Death and the Maiden' motif, a sub-genre of memento mori that emphasizes the transience of life and the inevitability of decay. It reflects the Renaissance preoccupation with the corruption of the flesh and the vanity of youth, themes frequently explored in both moral philosophy and the Danse Macabre tradition.