Death with Left Hand Raised

This statuette depicting a decomposing cadaver armed with a bow and arrows (now lost) is an example of the type of “death figure” produced since the mid-16th century that served to remind the viewer of the transience of life and earthly pleasures. The snakes emerging from the cadaver’s muscles and skin, signifying the temptation of Adam and Eve, and the frogs—symbols of evil spirits—squatting inside the rib cage and on the sculpture’s base emphatically suggest the cadaver’s physical and spiritual deterioration.