Dance of Death
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a grotesque representation in which the figure of Death takes the lead, followed by dancers of all ages and conditions. The Dance of Death had its origin in Germany in the fourteenth century. It was, in this first instance, a sort of morality play consisting of dialogues between Death and his followers. It was presented by a religious order with the purpose of reminding the living that death had power to wreck all human plans. The presentation was repeated in France. It became extremely popular, not only in Germany and France, but in Spain and England. It seemed to possess a wonderful fascination. Artists soon took up the idea. The Dance of Death was presented in every conceivable way,--in paintings, in tapestry, and in bas relief. Poems were written describing different figures and scenes. Monastery walls and churchyard walls were painted more or less elaborately with these groups. A famous Dance of Death was painted in fresco on the walls of walls of the churchyard in the suburb of St. John at Basel, which has been entirely destroyed. It represented Death summoning to the dance persons of all ranks from pope to beggar. It contained about sixty life-sized figures. Rhymes explained different scenes in the dance. The celebrated Hans Holbein produced fifty-three sketches for engravings suggested by the Dance of Death. The figures are independent--not arranged as a dance. Death is represented beside the "judge on his bench, the priest in his pulpit, the nun in her cell, the doctor in his study, the bride and the beggar, the king and the infant." The original drawings are at St. Petersburg.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 account of the danse macabre still describes the tradition well, but two of its claims have shifted. The confident statement that it "had its origin in Germany in the fourteenth century" as a morality play is no longer standard: the earliest firmly documented example is the mural with verses painted in 1424–25 in the cemetery of the Holy Innocents in Paris, and scholars now treat the evidence for staged performances as thin and much debated, with the painted-and-versed form primary. Holbein's designs, which Aiton credits to him alone, are now shared out with the block-cutter Hans Lützelburger, who cut them before his death in 1526; the set was published at Lyons in 1538. The losses have also continued since 1910: the celebrated painted Dance in the Marienkirche at Lübeck was destroyed in the air raid of March 1942, while fragments of the Basel fresco Aiton calls "entirely destroyed" survive in the Basel Historical Museum.
Written for this edition, 2026.