| The Ages (of Woman) and Death | |
| Year: | 1541–1544 |
| Medium: | Oil on canvas |
| Height Metric: | 151 |
| Width Metric: | 61 |
| Metric Unit: | cm |
| Imperial Unit: | in |
| City: | Madrid |
| Museum: | Museo del Prado |
The Ages and Death (Spanish: Las Edades y la Muerte) is an oil-on-canvas painting created between 1541 and 1544 by the German artist Hans Baldung which is in the collection of the Prado Museum, in Madrid. It is also referred to as "The Ages of Woman and Death". [1]
The work is an allegorical painting alluding to the transience of beauty and the fragility of human life. Death with his hourglass and broken lance has already taken the arm of the old woman who is in turn holding on to the younger one. A baby lies sleeping on the ground. In the lower background is a depiction of Hell with above a crucified Christ in a shaft of heavenly light, representing the opposing visions of life after death. The owl at bottom left is a symbol of wisdom warning of the consequences of sin.
It is part of a set of similarly themed paintings by Baldung, such as The Three Graces.