IDENTIFIERS ----------- id: 225374 accession number: P.14784-R.f4r DATE AUDIT ---------- created: Wednesday 5 September 2018 updated: Tuesday 26 March 2024 DESCRIPTIVE DATA ---------------- object type: Erstes Blatt' [Plate One], printed at upper centre. Wood-engraving with a very pale yellow tint. An allegorical scene in which Death, represented as a human skeleton, can be seen climbing out of an open grave on the left, a cross broken and discarded in the foreground. He is assisted by representations of five Vices. The central female figure with a snake around her neck is Cunning, who hands Death a sword stolen from Justice, who sits bound and blindfolded in the background to the right. Vanity holds a mirror up to Death and wears a skirt decorated with the eyes of the peacock feather. She places a hat with a cockerel feather upon the head of Death, which has been identified as referencing the hat worn by Friedrich Hecker, the leader of the Baden uprising of April 1848 (See Boime, 1991, p. 578, n.5). Falsehood wears a mask and cloak on the far right and points to the captive Justice whose scales she holds in her left hand. Bloodthirstiness, a hooded figure holding a scythe in the background on the left stands beside Madness, whose horse champs and tosses its head in a frenzied manner. The horse accompanies Death throughout the series and Madness holds the riding boots with spurs (another reference to Hecker) which are worn by Death in all but the final scene. Four verses composed by poet Robert Reinick arranged below the image begin with a reference to the slogan of the French Republic, which had its origins in the Revolution of 1789: 'Freiheit, Gleichheit und Brudersinn!' [Liberty, Equality and Fraternity!]. title: print LICENSING --------- text license status: CC0 image license status: CC-BY-NC-SA OWNERSHIP --------- instutition: The Fitzwilliam Museum department: Paintings, Drawings and Prints creditline: Given by Mr Philip J. Worsley, 1914-13 STABLE URL ---------- url: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/225374 TECHNIQUES ---------- wood engraving CATEGORIES ------ category: print DATING ------ creation date: 1879 - 1879 creation date earliest: 1879 creation date latest: 1879 culture: 19th Century CREATORS -------- maker: Unknown maker: Schlicke, Bernhard; Elischer, Balthasar maker: Rethel, Alfred