Smiling skeletons and four men, each pierced by the arrow of Death. From left: soldier in armour; man in large round flat cap; dandy or vain young man in slashed doublet, trunk hose and puffed sleeves, with a lace collar and feather in his hat; and double-amputee beggar on crutches. Detail from Renaissance Dance of Death fresco frieze, painted in 1539 by Simone II Baschenis (c. 1495-1555), on an outside wall of the Chiesa di San Vigilio, Pinzolo, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy.
Chiesa di San Vigilio, Pinzolo, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy: detail from Dance of Death fresco frieze running along top of southern outside wall, below the eaves. The frieze was painted in 1539 by Simone II Baschenis (c. 1495-1555) in what the Northeast Italy Cadogan Guide describes as “a vividly eerie medieval-style Dance of Death”. The Guide continues: “Placid, business-like skeletons conduct princes, popes, soldiers and everyone else to their end”. Simone II Baschenis (c. 1495 – 1555) was an Italian painter belonging to one of the most popular workshops of itinerant painters present in the Bergamo area and Trentino. His family, originally from the hamlet of Colla in the mountain municipality of Santa Brigida (Bergamo Province, Lombardy region), handed down their trade from father to son for centuries from the mid-1400s. Simone II is considered the most qualified painter of the dynasty, interpreting subjects in an original way. The Dance of Death fresco, signed and dated 25 October 1539, depicts: three musical skeletons, followed by Christ on the cross and 18 people with very different positions in society, each already pierced by the arrow of Death. All dance with a smiling skeleton while Death, at the back of the procession, advances on horseback. The procession ends with the Archangel Michael and the devil holding a book on which the deadly sins are written. Below each scene are the words that each skeleton addresses to their companion. Dance of Death paintings generally function as memento mori. Pinzolo is a ski resort in the Val Rendena, on the banks of the Sarca River in the Brenta Dolomites in the northern Italian Alps. It lies inside the Parco Naturale Adamello Brenta nature reserve.
Size: 4116px × 2739px
Location: Chiesa di San Vigilio, Pinzolo, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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