The High Middle Ages’ fascination with death and God’s judgment of the eternal soul had a marked increase during the fourteenth century due to a number of factors. This eschatological interest is represented in several works of art emphasizing the growing importance of understanding that the physical body is ephemeral. The Triumph of Death, Pietà, Vanitas and the Danse Macabre theme all demonstrate this concept. More importantly, the representation of physical death emphasizes the importance of the eternal soul. In addition, these works demarcate a subtle doctrinal shift toward a humanistic, emotional perspective of physical death in iconography prior to the onset of the plague in the fourteenth century.