Human Fragility
| Human Fragility | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Salvator Rosa |
| Year | 1656 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 197.4 cm × 131.5 cm (77.7 in × 51.8 in) |
| Location | Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
Human Fragility is an oil-on-canvas painting of 1656 by the Italian artist Salvator Rosa. It was painted during a plague in Naples; many of Rosa's relatives, including his son, brother, and sister, died. The painting is now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
The work depicts figures enacting an allegory: the seated woman is said to be Lucrezia, Rosa's mistress, and the young boy his son, wrist clenched by Death. The angel of death is manipulating the boy's hand to write "Conceptio Culpa, Nasci Pena, Labor Vita, Necesse Mori – 'Conception is a sin, Birth is a punishment, Life is toil, Death a necessity." The canvas is adorned with many foreboding indicia and memento mori(s).[1]
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