Lebenstreppe

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.

• 
  "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

1. Heath, Kay (2009). Aging by the Book: The Emergence of Midlife in Victorian Britain. New York: SUNY Press. p. 8.
2. "The Steps of Life". The Public Domain Review. 31 May 2016. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
3. "print; satirical print". The British Museum. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
4. 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.
5. 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