Bisschop en de Dood 1524 - 1538

"Bisschop en de Dood" (Bishop and Death) is a woodcut print created by Hans Holbein the Younger between 1524 and 1538. This artwork, now housed in the Rijksmuseum, depicts a bishop walking with a skeletal figure of Death. The scene is set against a mountainous backdrop with a flock of sheep and a distant castle. The bishop, adorned in his traditional vestments, carries a staff and appears calm, perhaps even accepting of his inevitable fate. Holbein's "Dance of Death" series, which this print belongs to, explores the universality of death and its impact on people from all walks of life. The stark lines of the woodcut contribute to the powerful message of mortality and the inevitability of death.