The Duchess (Dance of Death series)

A woodcut print depicting a skeleton in mid-motion, holding a drumstick high in one hand and striking a small drum with the other. The skeleton stands before a noble woman, who wears an elaborate puffed-sleeve gown and a decorative headpiece, and a nobleman in a tunic and flat cap; both appear to be glancing toward the skeleton. They stand before a draped curtain, and a small hourglass rests on the floor in the foreground, signifying the passage of time.

This image is part of Hans Holbein the Younger's 'Les Simulachres & Historiees Faces de la Mort', a foundational work in the Memento Mori tradition that universalized the Dance of Death, showing that no social class is exempt from mortality.