Mercenaries and a Woman with Death in a Tree
1524
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1524
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
Mercenaries and a Woman with Death in a Tree is a 1524 by Urs Graf the Elder, a Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
Two Swiss soldiers stand under a tree with a woman and a skeleton. The soldiers look tough, the woman holds a money bag, and the skeleton hangs from the branches like a warning. This was drawn in 1524, when Swiss fighters were hired guns across Europe. The woman’s job—following the army for pay—was common but risky. The skeleton isn’t just decoration; it’s a reminder that too much of anything, especially sex and money, could kill you. Look up other works about Switzerland in the 1500s to see how artists showed the same rough world.
