Dance of Death

(French, Dance Macabre, Germ. Todtentanz)

The "Dance of Death" was originally a species of spectacular play
akin to the English moralities. It has been traced back to the
middle of the fourteenth century. The epidemics so frequent and so
destructive at that time, such as the Black Death, brought before
popular imagination the subject of death and its universal sway.
The dramatic movement then developing led to its treatment in the
dramatic form. In these plays Death appeared not as the destroyer,
but as the messenger of God summoning men to the world beyond the
grave, a conception familiar both to the Holy Bible and to the
ancient poets. The dancing movement of the characters was a
somewhat later development, as at first Death and his victims
moved at a slow and dignified gait. But Death, acting the part of
a messenger, naturally took the attitude and movement of the day,
namely the fiddlers and other musicians, and the dance of death
was the result.

The purpose of these plays was to teach the truth that all men
must die and should therefore prepare themselves to appear before
their Judge. The scene of the play was usually the cemetery or
churchyard, though sometimes it may have been the church itself.
The spectacle was opened by a sermon on the certainty of death
delivered by a monk. At the close of the sermon there came forth
from the charnel-house, usually found in the churchyard, a series
of figures decked out in the traditional mask of death, a close-
fitting, yellowish linen suit painted so as to resemble a
skeleton. One of them addresses the intended victim, who is
invited to accompany him beyond the grave. The first victim was
usually the pope or the emperor. The invitation is not regarded
with favour and various reasons are given for declining it, but
these are found insufficient and finally death leads away his
victim. A second messenger then seizes the hand of a new victim, a
prince or a cardinal, who is followed by others representing the
various classes of society, the usual number being twenty-four.
The play was followed by a second sermon reinforcing the lesson of
the representation.

The oldest traces of these plays are found in Germany, but we have
the Spanish text for a similar dramatic performance dating back to
the year 1360, "La Danza General de la Muerte". We read of similar
dramatic representations elsewhere: in Bruges before Duke Philip
the Good of Burgundy in 1449; in 1453 at Besan�on, and in France
in the Cimeti�re des Innocents near Paris in 1424. That similar
spectacles were known in England we infer from John Lydgate's
"Dance of Death" written in the first half of the fifteenth
century. In Italy besides the traditional dance of death we find
spectacular representations of death as the all-conqueror in the
so-called "Trionfo della Morte". The earliest traces of this
conception may be found in Dante and Petrarch. In Florence (1559)
the "triumph of death" formed a part of the carnival celebration.
We may describe it as follows: After dark a huge wagon, draped in
black and drawn by oxen, drove through the streets of the city. At
the end of the shaft was seen the Angel of Death blowing the
trumpet. On the top of the wagon stood a great figure of Death
carrying a scythe and surrounded by coffins. Around the wagons
were covered graves which opened whenever the procession halted.
Men dressed in black garments on which were painted skulls and
bones came forth and, seated on the edge of the graves, sang
dirges on the shortness of human life. Before and behind the wagon
appeared men in black and white bearing torches and death masks,
followed by banners displaying skulls and bones and skeletons
riding on scrawny nags. While they marched the entire company sang
the Miserere with trembling voices.

Specimens of the dramatic dance of death have been preserved in
the Altsfeld Passion Plays, in the French morality entitled
"Charite", and in the Neumarkt Passion Play which opens with the
triumph of Death. As the painter's art developed, the dance of
death was in a way made permanent by being painted on the
enclosing walls of cemeteries, on charnel-houses, in mortuary
chapels, and even in churches. These representations are found in
most of the countries of Europe. One of the most famous is the
"Triumph of Death" in the cemetery of Pisa, painted between 1450
and 1500. One of the oldest pictures of the dance of death proper
is that in the Cemeti�re des Innocents at Paris (1425). Baumker,
in Herder's "Kirchenlexikon", enumerates seven French dances of
death dating back to the fifteenth century, three of the sixteenth
century, three of the seventeenth century, seven of uncertain
date, five in England, and four in Italy. Within the limits of the
old German Empire there still exist some thirty painted dances of
death scattered throughout Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. In
many representations underneath the several couples are found a
rhymed dialogue between Death and his victims, being the
invitation of the former and the reply of his victim.

Engravings

With the development of his art the dance of death naturally
became a popular theme for the engraver. Many such prints were
produced by various German artists, but the most famous version is
that of the younger Holbein, issued in 1538 by the brothers
Trechsel at Lyons. It appears to be clear from the researches of
Wornum and Woltmann, of Paul Mantz, of W. J. Linton, the Rev. G.
Davies, C. Dodgson, and others, that the drawings were undoubtedly
the work of Hans Holbein the younger, who was resident in Basle up
to the autumn of 1526, before which time the drawings must have
been produced. They were distinctly in his manner and of
extraordinarily high merit. There is no evidence that Holbein ever
cut a block himself, and when these were issued it was expressly
stated that the artist or engraver, who is now generally accepted
as Hans L�tszelberger, one of the greatest of German engravers,
was dead. But little is known of his career. He was certainly dead
before 1526. The designs appear to have been cut on the wood
eleven years before the book was published, and their issue was
probably held back by reason of the unsettled state of religious
opinion in Basle. The series comprises forty-two engravings, the
subject expressed with masterly dramatic power, marvellous
clearness, and marked reticence of line. Technically they are as
perfect as woodcuts can be. There are five sets of proof
impressions in existence, and the little book passed through nine
editions at Lyons and was printed also in Venice, Augsburg, and
Basle. There have been many reissues and reproductions of it, and
a facsimile of the first edition was published in Munich in 1884.

Besides the "Dance of Death" Holbein designed a series of initials
consisting of an alphabet in which it is the motif. Of Holbein's
larger "Dance of Death" more than one hundred editions have
appeared. Since Holbein this subject has been treated again and
again, especially by German engravers. The most noted of recent
dances of death is that by Alfred Rethel, 1848, in which Death is
represented as the hero of the Red Republic. Both the conception
and the execution of Rethel's engravings are highly artistic and
impressive.

CHARLES G. HERBERMANN & GEORGE CHARLES WILLIAMSON
Transcribed by Rick McCarty


From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright � 1913 by the
Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version copyright � 1996 by
New Advent, Inc.

Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent).

This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an
effort aimed at placing the  entire Catholic Encyclopedia 1913
edition on the World Wide Web. The coordinator is Kevin Knight,
editor of the New Advent Catholic Website. If you would like to
contribute to this  worthwhile project, you can contact him by e-
mail at (knight.org/advent). For  more information please download
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