Speculum Mortis

Daniela Rywikováis assistant professor of art history at the University of Ostrava.

This richly illustrated study provides comprehensive information about the cultural history of death, examining theological discourse and popular piety surrounding artistic visualizations such as the "personified death" in the Danse macabre. Daniela Rywiková's intriguing study introduces the reader to this central theme of humanity by drawing our attention to mural paintings and book illuminations of the Czech lands. Exciting to read and profoundly argued, Speculum Mortis: The Image of Death in Late Medieval Bohemian Painting offers important insight into the spirituality of medieval Bohemia.

• Introduction: Four Last Things: Dying and Death in the Middle AgesChapter 1: Imago mortis: Image of Death in Early and High Medieval ArtChapter 2: Death of the ApocalypseChapter 3: Mors triumfans: Triumph of Death in the Broumov Charnel House in the Context of Period Funeral Liturgy and TheologyChapter 4: Memento mori: The Legend of the Three Living and the Three Dead as a Polysemantic Presentation of Death in Late Medieval Bohemian Mural PaintingChapter 5: Ars moriendi and Symmetry of Sin: The Krumlov Miscellanea as a Vademecum of Virtuous Life, Perfect Penance, and the Good DeathChapter 6: Danse macabre: Two Prague Dances of Death as a Critique of the Sinful World