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"Do Not Turn Back When You Arrive at the End" [fol. 26 verso / 27 recto]

French early 16th Century

1513

ink

paper

From the collection of National Gallery of Art

Renaissance Renaissance Allegory

Dominant colour

"Do Not Turn Back When You Arrive at the End" [fol. 26 verso / 27 recto] is a 1513 ink by French early 16th Century, a Renaissance work, held at National Gallery of Art.

Who painted this?: French early 16th Century
When & what style?: 1513 · Renaissance
Where can I see it?: National Gallery of Art

About this work

This image shows a two-sided drawing of a strange, symbolic scene. On the left, three men stand outside a house labeled with words like *Ratio* and *Medicus*. One holds a staff, another a scroll. On the right, a dark chariot pulled by monsters rolls toward a skeleton labeled *Finis Vitae*, while a crow watches. The whole thing looks like a story about life and death. The words and figures here aren’t just decoration—they’re clues. The house might stand for wisdom, while the chariot could mean the end of life. The crow and monsters add to the eerie mood. Next, look up Renaissance to see how artists used symbols like these to teach lessons.

About the artist

Artist

French early 16th Century

A French draftsman from the early 1500s filled sheets of laid paper with tiny, sharp-tongued instructions—ink sketches paired with warnings like “Do Not Eat Your Heart Out” or “Feed Not Things That Have Sharp Claws.”…

See the richer artist page