This evening module examines death as a theme in European painting and sculpture during the early modern period. There will be three broad areas of study: the first deals with images that reflect both ideological and eschatological responses to death in an age of religious reform. Topics include the iconography of the Last Judgement and Danse Macabre themes, and the development of Vanitas imagery. We shall then move on to address more individualistic responses to the nature of mortality with recourse to the development of tomb monuments, effigies and memorial portraiture. Topics include John Donne's monument at St. Paul's Cathedral, Michelangelo's tomb designs, and the royal funeral effigies of Westminster Abbey. The final section of the module addresses an increasingly rational and scientific reaction to corporeal decay in the aftermath of the Reformation. Here we shall look at the imagery of decapitation in the work of Caravaggio and his followers, the anatomical studies of Leonardo da Vinci, and Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson of Dr.Tulp.