About
The uncanny fresco celebrating the "triumph of death" was divided into four pieces for transportation.
The Triumph of Death, a 15th-century fresco stripped from its wall that now proudly stands in the Museo Regionale Abatellis, is remarkable for its cruel depiction of death and its appearance, presenting the scene with a macabre and gothic taste. While the theme of death was already widespread in art from other parts of Europe at the time, these types of paintings were less common in Italy. The fresco shows a lush garden, where rich and noble are surrounding a group of musicians playing close to a fountain. Unlike in a horror movie, Death is entering the scene and causes havoc -- Death is presented as a skeleton riding a skeletal horse with a scythe on the back while firing arrows to rich and poor. On the bottom, already dead bishops and nobles are lying, killed by arrows. The corpses are already grayish and some of the deaths have the limbs dismembered (showing the attention of the painter for gruesome details).
