The Art of Dying

Another post from way-back-when, when A and I were introduced to the demented and utterly entertaining acts put on at the Palace of Wonders last year. After witnessing the truly spew-inducing (well, maybe not spew-inducing, but I definitely pulled out a few chunks of hair) panoply of warped, self-injuring stunts of the gifted Zamora the Torture King and also in the spirit of the crazy fun times had with Thrill Kill Jill and her beau Tyler Fyre, whose props include an array of swords, an albino python (think From Dusk Till Dawn), a synthetic confetti-filled placenta, and a whole lotta fire, I present this print.

From the popular illustrated treatise The Art of Dying (Ars moriendi), this is a blockbook print of the Avaricious Man. All of the woodcuts feature a dying man lying in bed, accompanied by an angel, a devil, and other pertinent figures to show a particular form of temptation--which becomes dangerously alluring when one is at the end of his rope. The book outlines over the course of several chapters ways in which the ill-fated can overcome temptation and accomplish peace because "the devil with all his might is busy to avert fully a man from the faith in his last end." Blah blah blah.

(The Avaricious Man, from The Art of Dying, 1465-70. Blockbook)