The Ladder of Life

Stair-shaped structure full of people and animals. Left front lies a baby in a crib, right sits an old man with his legs dangling above an open grave. At the baby begins a 'stair of ages', which from cradle to grave counts ten steps, ten life phases. At each age a beast can be seen that typifies that phase: the ten-year-old boy has a playful goat kid with him, the forty-year-old is noble and wise as a lion, the fifty-year-old smart as a fox and the eighty-year-old sits on a slow donkey. On the 'young' side of the stair stands a tree full in leaf, with birds and musical instruments. On the 'old' side hang glasses and crutches in a bare tree. Printed from two blocks on two sheets, attached to each other.