I visited the Raclin Murphy Museum at the University of Notre Dame yesterday and had the opportunity to learn from an intern about observing art. “Death Comes to the Banquet Table” was one of the two artworks we observed and discussed.

Llyleila Richardson writes “While their story-telling symbolism is as old as Christianity itself, “memento mori” paintings saw a particular popularity in seventeenth-century Europe. It was a time of tumultuous politics and religious instability even as wealth flooded in from overseas. The Baroque art that bloomed during this period reflects the contrast between these two realities, as tensely captured here by Florentine painter Giovanni Martinelli in NOMA’s Death Comes to the Banquet Table.