{
"data": {
"id": 121309,
"accession_number": "1942.118",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Mercenaries and a Woman with Death in a Tree, 1524. Urs Graf the Elder (Swiss, c. 1485\u20131527/29). Woodcut; image: 20.2 x 11.7 cm (7 15/16 x 4 5/8 in.); sheet: 20.2 x 11.7 cm (7 15/16 x 4 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen Fund, 1942.118",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Mercenaries and a Woman with Death in a Tree",
"creation_date": "1524",
"creation_date_earliest": 1524,
"creation_date_latest": 1524,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"Switzerland"
],
"technique": "woodcut",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Prints",
"collection": "PR - Woodcut",
"type": "Print",
"measurements": "Image: 20.2 x 11.7 cm (7 15/16 x 4 5/8 in.); Sheet: 20.2 x 11.7 cm (7 15/16 x 4 5/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"image": {
"height": 0.202,
"height_inch": 7,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.9375,
"width": 0.117,
"width_inch": 4,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.625
},
"sheet": {
"height": 0.202,
"height_inch": 7,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.9375,
"width": 0.117,
"width_inch": 4,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.625
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 311458,
"title": "Albrecht D\u00fcrer and His Influence",
"description": "Albrecht D\u00fcrer and His Influence. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 16-March 10, 1991).",
"opening_date": "1991-01-16T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 311454,
"title": "Images of War",
"description": "Images of War. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5, 1991-January 12, 1992).",
"opening_date": "1991-11-05T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 184690,
"title": "Against the Grain: Woodcuts from the Collection",
"description": "Against the Grain: Woodcuts from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 17-November 9, 2003).",
"opening_date": "2003-08-17T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 437915,
"title": "Love Gardens / Forbidden Fruit",
"description": "Love Gardens / Forbidden Fruit. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 2-October 29, 2023).",
"opening_date": "2023-07-02T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "British Museum (Lugt 300), duplicate (Lugt 305)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"Ex. Coll.
"
],
"date": "-1942",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "with Richard Zinser, New York",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "Purchased by the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1942",
"sortorder": 3
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Urs Graf was a Swiss professional soldier, or mercenary, who made many images of soldiers and camp followers, such as the woman featured here.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Two Swiss mercenaries and a woman meet outside a city at a prominent tree. The woman\u2019s immodest dress, glance, and proximity to a money bag imply that she is sexually available, as does the soldier\u2019s suggestively placed sword. Death makes an appearance as a skeleton, conjoining sin with death (for it was believed that overindulgence in carnal love led to peril). The Swiss Confederacy during the 1500s was a culture of mercenary warfare. Women traveled with regiments of soldiers, earning meager wages as servants, cooks, or sex workers. Urs Graf, a soldier himself, made many images
ridiculing the situation.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q80017151"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1942.118-mercenaries-and-a-wo"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Richards, Louise. \"Two Woodcuts.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 44, no. (April 1957): 63-67.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 63; Reproduced: p. 65",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25142203"
},
{
"citation": "Draiflessen Collection. Storytelling : Die Erza\u0308Hlerische Kraft Der Druckgrafik. Mettingen: Draiflessen Collection, 2023.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 65, fig. 2",
"url": ""
}
],
"catalogue_raisonne": "Hollstein 28",
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1942.118",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1942.118/1942.118_web.jpg",
"width": "528",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "493537",
"filename": "1942.118_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1942.118/1942.118_print.jpg",
"width": "2012",
"height": "3400",
"filesize": "6648759",
"filename": "1942.118_print.jpg"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1942.118/1942.118_full.tif",
"width": "3021",
"height": "5105",
"filesize": "46301868",
"filename": "1942.118_full.tif"
}
},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Dudley P. Allen Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 121309,
"creators": [
{
"id": 28101,
"description": "Urs Graf the Elder (Swiss, c. 1485\u20131527/29)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1485",
"death_year": "1529",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1942-02-13T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1524,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1524",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"Two Soldiers and a Woman with Death in a Tree"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-08-03 14:11:53.486000"
}
}