Painted C 1446 by an unknown artist, this fresco exemplifies late Gothic painting in Italy, with its emphasis on flowing lines, minute details, complex compositions and lack of perspective. Across Europe, the theme of Triumph of Death was widespread, but the emphasis here on the macabre was more common in northern Europe than in Italy. In the 15th century death was a constant, fearsome and indiscriminate specter.In the centre of a garden, Death rides an emancipated horse and has just fired an arrow into the neck of a young man in the lower right-hand corner, which leads the eye to figures including emperors, popes, bishops, friars, poets, knights and maidens – all also dead or dying. On the left, a group of poor people are either supplicating with Death to end their suffering – or alternatively they may be plague survivors who have evaded Death
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Dinesh said: