Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Triumph of Death, 1562

An army of Death marches across an apocalyptic landscape: fires choke the air, dead fish wash up on the lakeshore, the land is barren, and a skeleton army slays people at every turn. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ride and take out people with spears and a scythe. People are herded into a giant coffin at right. Peasants and kings alike are being slain, indicating that Death does not discriminate. Skeletons in the top left ring the death knell, which was the church bell ring indicating a death in the parish, but this time it’s for all humanity.

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