Tema morții în ex-libris-uri
The theme of Death in ex-libris

Summary/Abstract: Around the 13th century, Europe witnessed an efflorescence of depictions of death in art but also in the figurative ex-libris. These images of worm-infested corpses, infernal punishments or skeletal remains were summed up by the art historians in the word “macabre”. This paper describes this phenomenon as it can be seen in ex-libris. Three important themes may be distinguished: the fact that everybody dies and that the great personalities are not immortal, the inexorable passing of beauty and the decomposition of the human body, and the dance of death, the depictions of death dragging along men of all conditions. Other minor themes are the ars moriendi, the description of the agony of death, the young girl and death and the death triumphant. All those themes are illustrated with examples of ex-libris.

• Details
• Contents