The Lovers Surprised by Death (1510): Art, History and Details

The Lovers Surprised by Death (1510) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Hans Burgkmair (German, 1473–1531).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This is the earliest known chiaroscuro woodcut to be composed of a line block and two tone blocks rather than just one tone block. However, unlike the majority of German chiaroscuro woodcuts, the line block alone does not provide a coherent image. All three of the blocks must be printed for the design to be complete. The subject is a remarkably effective combination of a typically Northern subject—a grim representation of Death—and an evocative Italian setting. The classical architecture, the gondola on a canal, and the distinctively wide chimney pots indicate Venice, where Burgkmair would have stayed during his presumed journey to Italy in 1507. The figure of Death is winged, as in Italian art of the period, and the classical costumes and pose of the terrified woman resemble antique representations of Daphne fleeing Apollo, a reflection of what interested Burgkmair's patrons, the educated elite in Augsburg.

Object facts

• Title: The Lovers Surprised by Death
• Date: 1510
• Creator attribution: Hans Burgkmair (German, 1473–1531)
• Culture: Germany
• Type: Print
• Technique: chiaroscuro woodcut
• Collection: PR - Chiaroscuro
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1952.533

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Richards, Louise. "Two Woodcuts." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 44, no. (April 1957): 63-67.
• Goldfarb, Hilliard T. “Chiaroscuro Woodcut Technique and Andrea Andreani.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 68, no. 9 (November 1981): 307–330.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.