A Lebenstreppe or Stufenalter (German: "steps of life" or "stages of life") is a pictorial representation of the human life as a series of ascending and descending steps. The tradition began in fifteenth-century Europe and many hundreds of variations were produced until the early twentieth century, though the popularity of the tradition waned during the nineteenth century.[1] The most common variation depicts ten steps each representing ten years, with the peak at fifty.[2][3][4][5] Parodic versions have been created for satiric, moralistic, and advertising purposes.
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"Das Stufenalter des Mannes". Verlag Gustav May Söhne, Frankfurt, c. 1900. -
James Baillie, 1848. "The Life and age of man, stages of man's life from the cradle to the grave". -
Unknown Spanish artist, c. 1750 -
Nathaniel Currier, c. 1846. "The Drunkard's Progress: from the first glass to the grave". Lithograph in support of the temperance movement.
References
- ^ Heath, Kay (2009). Aging by the Book: The Emergence of Midlife in Victorian Britain. New York: SUNY Press. p. 8.
- ^ "The Steps of Life". The Public Domain Review. 31 May 2016. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
- ^ "print; satirical print". The British Museum. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
- ^ Joerißen, Peter; Will, Cornelia K. (1983). Die Lebenstreppe: Bilder der menschlichen Lebensalter: eine Ausstellung des Landschaftsverbandes Rheinland, Rheinisches Museumsamt, Brauweiler in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Städtischen Museum Haus Koekkoek, Kleve. Rheinland-Verlag. ISBN 3792707624.
- ^ Daiber, Jürgen (2020). "Kapitel VIII Lebenstreppen, oder: statt eines Nachworts". Literatur und Todesangst: Strategien poetischer Bewältigung (in German). Brill. pp. 223–231. ISBN 9783957437068.
External links
Media related to Steps of life at Wikimedia Commons
This page was last edited on 5 April 2024, at 06:26