Death Rides into Town

The second woodcut of Rethel’s Dance of Death shows Death traveling on horseback along a country road, toward a walled city whose cathedral rises in the distance, as does the smoke from chimneys hinting at the progress of industrial transformations. He wears his hat, a coat, boots, carries a scythe slung over his shoulder, and has a pair of scales hanging from his little finger. Two women field-workers hurry away at a crossroads as they see him drawing near.

The title reads in the original German: Der Tod reitet zur Stadt.