#death and the maiden
Mary Magdalene as a Hermit, 1887, by Alfred Stevens, Belgian, 1823-1906. Museum Voor Schone Kunsten, Gent, Belgium.
This painting shocked the public when it was first presented. Despite the bleak background and the vanitas elements, they preferred to see Magdalene in misery. The model is Sarah Bernhardt with a dreamy stare, which didn’t help matters.
Stevens’s grandparents ran Café de l’Amitié in Brussels. It was there he met politicians, writers and artists.
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Death and the Maiden by George Clark Stanton
Death and the Maiden(Der Tod und das Mädchen in German) was a common motif in Renaissance art, especially painting and prints in Germany. The usual form shows just two figures, with a young woman being seized by a personification of Death, often shown as a skeleton. Variants may include other figures. It developed from the Danse Macabre with an added erotic subtext. The German artist Hans Baldung depicted it several times.
The motif was revived during the romantic era in the arts, a notable example being Franz Schubert’s song “Der Tod und das Mädchen”, setting a poem by the German poet Matthias Claudius. Part of the piano part was re-used in Schubert’s famous String Quartet No. 14, which is therefore also known by this title, in either English or German.
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