Death and the Matron - Shauna Tague

• I was pretty fascinated by the painting “Death and the Matron” by Hans Baldung Grien which you can find in our textbook on page 687. Both sexuality and mortality, femininity and repugnance, all are portrayed in one painting, offering very complex meanings. At this time of 16^th century Europe eroticism and sexuality in woman was coming about and had become more admired as we have seen in other paintings we have looked at around the same time period. The painting is eye catching to say the least and when I took one glance at it, it wasn't the skeleton corpse or the pale, illuminated nude body that drew my attention; it was the repulsive expression on the woman’s face that utterly captivated in a bizarre way. It’s almost a shame that this beautiful, sensual, body in such an elegant position is paired with such a horrific look on her face. The orange-yellow colors and complexion of his dead bony body evoke disgust and represent everything the matron is not. With the contrasting colors of the silky, creamy pale color of her skin to the shiny color and hard texture of the dead skeleton, it looks like evil is taking over good but I don’t think it’s that simple. The skeleton, “death”, is holding her in a rather sensual, gentle way which causes you to think that he is not there to take her or kill her but rather just be in her presence. If she didn't have such a horrific expression it would almost think the two were in a moment of passion. This painting will always beguile me and keep me wondering about its strange context and divergent colors.