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Time in Medieval Ages: The Triumph of Death
The triumph of death [I] [I] [E] [F] [ES] is a popular subject of the Medieval Eve. It usually represents a skeleton riding a horse, who meets rich people, like kings, Popes or gentlemen. The skeleton is the personification of death, who kills with her sword not only poor people, but also rich, men and women. The conclusion is that people shouldn’t worry about money, or politic power: the time , with the triumph of death, will make everybody the same, cancelling every social difference. Italy owns one of the most famous painting with this subject in the Palazzo Abatellis Museum, in Palermo (Sicily).
The iconography became very popular after the 1348, when the epidemy usually remembered as the "black death" killed a lot of people in Europe. This kind of image helped to create a sort of irony about the theme of death, and about the fear felt from everyone thinking about the end of the time and of the human life. Referring to the misery of poor people, it was also a sort of consolation, imagining Death as someone who brings the social justice they couldn't have in their lives. For rich people instead, it was a "memento mori", with the intention, from a Catholic point of view, to make them be more generous and right during the life, thinking about the final judgement that will arrive after the triumph of Death.
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