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Allegory of the Transience of Life

1618
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 690
This personal tribute to the artist’s brother, who had died in July 1618, incorporates numerous symbolic motifs. The skull, hourglass, incense burner, and ruins all speak to the passage of time and inevitability of death, while the obelisk—an ancient funerary monument—and the vine winding around its pointed form may allude to the ways in which our loved ones live on in memory and in art.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Allegory of the Transience of Life
  • Artist: Christian Richter (German, Altenburg ca. 1585/90–1667 Weimar)
  • Date: 1618
  • Medium: Pen and ink, brush and brown, blue and pink wash, heightened with white gouache
  • Dimensions: sheet: 5 x 5 15/16 in. (12.7 x 15.1 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Guy Wildenstein Gift, 2007
  • Object Number: 2007.123
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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