Young Couple Threatened by Death (The Promenade)

The foreboding, corpselike figure of Death with an hourglass appears in many Northern Renaissance prints; in this engraving, he peeks out from behind a tree, holding his hourglass aloft. Each image is a reminder that death strikes the young, the Christian, and the chivalric alike; no one outlasts or avoids death. There is an evident connection between death and sensuality in this image, underlined by the suggestively positioned and sized sword.