Death and the Miser
c. 1485–1490 · Oil on panel · National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
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About this work
- Artist
- Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450–1516)
- Year
- c. 1485–1490
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Original size
- 93 × 31 cm
- Collection
- National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
- Movement
- Northern Renaissance
In a tall, narrow vaulted room a dying man sits up in bed as Death, a skeleton in a shroud, opens the door with an arrow; an angel at his side points him to a small crucifix in the window, while a demon peers from the bed curtains and another offers him a bag of gold. In the foreground the same man, perhaps earlier in life, drops coins into a chest guarded by small demons, and his armour and sword lie discarded. The picture draws on the popular fifteenth-century handbooks on the art of dying well, the Ars moriendi, and is a memento mori on greed. Bosch painted it in about 1485–1490, and it is thought to be one wing of a dismantled triptych whose other surviving wing, cut in two, comprises The Ship of Fools in the Louvre and the Allegory of Gluttony at Yale. A drawing after it suggests it was in England by about 1826. The Kress Foundation acquired it in 1951 and gave it to the National Gallery of Art in Washington in 1952.
This exhibition-poster edition shows the whole work beneath original typography set in-house. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
A tall, narrow panel of a dying man visited by Death and an angel in a pink and stone vaulted room, for a hallway, study or narrow wall at 16×24 in black. A warm white, stone or deep green wall; it pairs with The Garden of Earthly Delights.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Exhibition poster of a Northern Renaissance painting
- Era
- 15th century (c. 1485–1490)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Palette
- cream & beige
- Mood
- grand
- Rooms
- hallway or entryway, study or library, living room, dining room, dorm room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 16×24. Prints at 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×36 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. Exhibition posters sit best in a slim black frame with no mat — the typeset margin is the mat.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is Death and the Miser in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Death and the Miser painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
