The human life cycle has been a recurring source of inspiration for artists for as long as art has been produced. Death in particular, a phenomenon so mysterious and yet so present in life, has inspired creativity designed both to shock and to comfort. 

Drawing on the cycle of the seasons, artists have found a particular source of inspiration in depicting the so-called ‘ages of man’ – the human experience roughly divided into birth, youth, maturity, and death. Particularly popular in Medieval Europe, by using the seasons as a framing device for visualising the progression of our lives artists have not only sought to understand, but also to reassure – after death, life will come again.

The Twelve Ages of a Man
Probably after a design by the Workshop of Bernard van Orley (1487-1541)
Netherlandish, ca. 1515.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gift of The Hearst Foundation, in memory of William Randolph Hearst, 1953. Learn More.

This tapestry is one of a series of twelve, each separated into periods of six years. The activities commonly associated with October, November, and December are depicted alongside a man experiencing the final stages of his life, through old age, infirmity, and death.

But there remains a sense of hope in this image. Just as spring will come again, the presence of angelic figures in the skies reassures the viewer that, according to the beliefs of Christian artists like van Orley, there is a life after death for humans too.

Death is coming to me,
New Valleys,
New great moons to haunt my tired lips.

An extract from Death, Louriene Aber, 1924

A system of belief that exists in most world religions is that of rebirth, or life after death. Seeking confirmation of this belief, humans have looked to the natural, and more specifically to the cycle of the seasons. With summer comes the blossoming of life, autumn is a time of abundance, winter of preservation, and spring is the bringer of sunlight and revival. Through the seasons, all life experiences a cycle of life, death, and rebirth.

The following artworks, sourced from communities around the world, have been inspired by the connections the artists have observed between the human life cycle and the changing of the seasons.

Hedgehog 
Anonymous
Late Period–Ptolemaic Period? 664–30 B.C., probably

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gift of Helen Miller Gould, 1910. Learn More.

This small carving of a hedgehog was created in Egypt around 2,500 years ago. Hedgehogs were commonly reproduced in the art of Ancient Egypt. It is thought that they were associated with rebirth, due to what might have seemed their mysterious capacity to disappear during periods of scarcity, only to miraculously reappear, or be ‘reborn’, later – a phenomenon we now understand as hibernation.   

Such was the estimation held for these seemingly humble creatures, that symbols of hedgehogs have been found adorning the possessions of Egyptian royalty, including Queen Nefertari, wife of the legendary King Ramesses II.

Hippopotamus (“William”)
Anonymous
Middle Kingdom – Ancient Egypt 1961-1878 BCE

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gift of Edward S. Harkness, 1917. Learn More.

For the Ancient Egyptians, the hippopotamus was an incredibly dangerous animal – a hazard for river craft. They were therefore closely associated with the cycle of life, as they were believed to occupy the waterways in the journey to the afterlife.

This figurine of a Hippopotamus was used in the burial equipment of a royal court offical. The body has been painted with lotuses, which depict the animal’s marshland habitat. These flowers also symbolise regeneration and rebirth, their leaves closing every night and opening again as the sun rises in the morning.

Terracotta loutrophoros (ceremonial vase for water)
Attributed to Darius the Painter (active 340-320 BCE)
Ancient Greece, c. 340-330 BCE.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Rogers Fund, 1911. Learn More.

This vase depicts the mythological story of Adonis, a mortal lover of goddess Aphrodite. In the myth, Adonis is tragically killed during a hunt but is resurrected as an anemone flower where he fell. The festival of Adonia was celebrated by Ancient Greek women in midsummer.
It was custom to place small plants atop their houses which would quickly grow before withering and dying, representing the short life of Adonis. The myth is often connected with seasonal change, the vegetation symbolising rebirth.

Lotus and waterbirds 
Anonymous 
Chinese, Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) 

Metropolitan Museum of Art. Purchase, The Dillon Fund Gift, 1988. Learn More.

This painting from Yuan Dynasty China depicts lotus flowers in two different stages of life: the midsummer scenes show the lotus flowers in the early stages of budding and bloom, whereas the autumnal scenes reveal their later stages: petals falling, and leaving turning brown.

The painting conveys a hopeful message, with the newly formed seed pods representing the next stage of the flower’s life, or in human terms, symbolising the next generation. The artwork serves as a metaphor for the passing of time, with the flowers representing the cycle of life.