Snapshots of the Past

The life and age of man. Stages of man's life, from the cradle to the grave – Historic Reproduction

The life and age of man. Stages of man's life, from the cradle to the grave — historic print
The life and age of man. Stages of man's life, from the cradle to the grave. Historic print from the Historic Print Archive collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

This historic print of The life and age of man. Stages of man's life, from the cradle to the grave brings a moment of history to your wall. The original is held by the Library of Congress, so what you hang is a true record of its time.

Framed, it is ready for the wall; unframed, it is ready for the frame you choose. It makes a striking addition to a living room, study or office, and a thoughtful gift. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Since 2001, Snapshots of the Past has shipped historic prints to tens of thousands of customers around the world.

The life and age of man. Stages of man's life, from the cradle to the grave

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The Life and Age of Man is a woodcut that lays out the stages of human life, from infancy in the cradle to old age and death in the grave, as a single sequence of figures. Pictures on this theme were a long-running European tradition, and they usually presented each age as a step on a ladder or wheel, with the lessons about vanity, labor and mortality built into the scene. The caption card gives no date, so the exact period of printing is uncertain, but the subject and its moral framing place it in the tradition of early modern devotional and popular prints. Its interest lies in how compactly the image sums up a whole life for a viewer who would have read it as a reminder of how brief that life was.

Medium1 print : woodcut.
Notes[no date recorded on caption card]
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,273 × 1,536 px · prints to 4 × 5 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-121300

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