The Monk, from "Dance of Death"

A skeleton seizes a robed monk by the hood and drags him backward across a stone floor, while the startled monk clutches a cup and turns his head toward the viewer. A column, a dog and a bench fill the architectural setting beneath a billowing cloud. Fine parallel hatching models the cloth and walls, and a Latin verse runs along the lower margin.

Look closer: A small dog lies beside the bench at the lower right, near the monk's feet.

Artist

Wenceslaus Hollar

Date

[1651] late 18th century printing

Medium

Etching; second state of four

Source

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Size

2407 × 3193 px

Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1951