A Naked Woman With a Chastity Belt Cheating On Her Husband MACABRE MUNDI

 A Naked Woman With a Chastity Belt Cheating On Her Husband

A naked woman with a chastity belt sits on a bed with her foot on a chest and offers a key to a finely attired man with fools ears; two figures observe the scene from the shadows and a fool empties a sheet of lice? into a basket.

 

Engraving made by Heinrich Wirrich, Germany, 1575-1600.

 

► Inscription Content: Lettered above with two columns, each four lines of Dutch "Wie jalours ... vreuchden leven". Below four columns, each eight lines of German "Wet Eÿfferen ... lauff die mausz".

SOURCE : ASSAF KINTZNER : https://www.flickr.com/photos/kintzertorium/3429183897

Macabre Mundi, LUCAS CRANACH

A Wild man walks on all fours toward the right with a dead baby in his mouth

Several bodyparts of other victims are scattered on the ground; a cottage with woman and children in the left background; the Saxon shields are at the upper centre-r; with vertical fold.

 Woodcut made by Lucas Cranach the Elder, Germany, 1510-1515 (c.).

 The meaning of this print and the reason for its being produced are not known but it depicts a wild man stealing a baby after he has wrought death and destruction on its household. Dismembered bodies lie scattered and a woman in the background throws up her hands in horror. The subject is like none other in Cranach's work. It might be connected with the fascination for wild men from distant lands also were the subject of many prints during the period. Cranach's monogram of the little serpent, which so often appears on his works, occurs here above the window embrasure near the woman.

ORIGINAL TEXT BY ASSAF KINTZNER

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kintzertorium/