Lebenstreppe

Pictorial representation of life as a series of steps

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

^ Heath, Kay (2009). Aging by the Book: The Emergence of Midlife in Victorian Britain. New York: SUNY Press. p. 8.
^ "The Steps of Life". The Public Domain Review. 31 May 2016. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
^ "print; satirical print". The British Museum. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
^ 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.
^ Daiber, Jürgen (2020). "Kapitel VIII Lebenstreppen, oder: statt eines Nachworts". Literatur und Todesangst: Strategien poetischer Bewältigung (in German). Brill. pp. 223–231. ISBN 9783957437068.