Death in Her Finery

A skeleton in the fashion of its day.

Work: engraving
Maker: attributed to Gerhard Altzenbach
Date: 17th century
Held by: Published Cologne, 17th century · Wellcome Collection

Format

The full-resolution scan, colour-managed to the source — yours to print, study, and explore.

$29.00

The story

An engraving published in Cologne and attributed to Gerhard Altzenbach, active there from 1609 to 1672. A skeleton stands in the full dress of a fashionable woman, plumed hat and long patterned gown, a sprig of flowers in one hand, with a churchyard behind her and birds in the air. In the upper left, the Wellcome Collection's catalogue notes, the Last Judgment plays out, the Virgin and Christ interceding before God for the saved. Vanity and its end, set in one figure for a wall at home.

See it on your wall

The plate, in the room it was made for

Death in Her Finery, printed large and framed — in the consulting room, the study, the library. Every edition ships ready to become the piece the room is built around.

About this reproduction

A reproduction of engraving — attributed to Gerhard Altzenbach, 17th century — from the copy held by Published Cologne, 17th century · Wellcome Collection. The source. The work is centuries out of copyright and in the public domain.
Printed faithful to that source scan. We do not re-colour it, complete it, or interpret it; the plate you receive is the plate as it survives.
Printed to order on EMA matte art paper, 200gsm. Framed editions sit in a box frame under acrylic, with no mount.
Colour-managed to the source; the tone of the paper and the ink is the engraver’s, not ours.
Ships in 5–10 business days.
If it arrives less than perfect, we reprint or refund — your choice.

Why our plates cost more than a poster: a poster is a mass run on wood-pulp stock, colour-corrected to whatever flattered the press that day. This is one sheet, pulled for you, at a size where the engraver’s hand is visible — the linework, the tonal work, the lettering — on a matte sheet that shows every line without glare.

From the same atlas