Rijke man en de Dood 1524 - 1538

"Rijke man en de Dood" (The Rich Man and Death) is a woodcut created between 1524 and 1538 by the renowned German artist Hans Holbein the Younger. This small-scale work, currently housed in the Rijksmuseum, depicts a powerful allegory of the inevitability of death, contrasting the riches of the world with the skeletal hand of mortality. The stark composition, with the rich man seated at a table laden with treasure while Death stands poised in the doorway, emphasizes the fragility of earthly possessions in the face of our ultimate fate. This woodcut is a quintessential example of Holbein's ability to render dramatic scenes with meticulous detail, a quality that made him a leading artist of his time.