Lübeck's Dance of Death

A Dance of Death in its simplest form still survives in the Marienkirche at Lübeck as 15th-century painting on the walls of a chapel.

Lübeck's dance of death was by far the most popular and beautiful in Europe. It had 24 figures, which were led into the dance by emaciated corpses draped in a shroud. In the background one can see a bucolic landscape and, far away, Lübeck city and its harbour. All details were minutely painted. A few quotes might indicate that Lübeck's dance of death has inspired the one in Berlin.

Basel’s Dance of Death

The famous series at Basel, originally at the Klingenthal, a nunnery in Little Basel, dated from the beginning of the 14th century. In the middle of the 15th century this was moved to the churchyard of the Predigerkloster at Basel, and was restored, probably by Hans Kluber, in 1568. The collapse of the wall in 1805 reduced it to fragments, and only drawings of it remain.

Brueghel’s Dance of Death

This horrifying panel was inspired by one of the medieval literary themes of the Dances of Death, where Death triumphing evenly over all social strata is reflected.

It was painted around 1562 and was in Antwerp as part of Philips van Valkenisse's collections. In 1774 it was listed in the inventory of the Palace of the Granja de San Ildefonso. Later, in 1827, it came to the collections of Museo del Prado, Museo Real at that time.

The painting could be defined as the view of a great desolate landscape of violence, where a deathly army works havoc and routs all living beings. Following specific lines, Brueghel organized the chaos constituted by the countless skeletons. The upper sector is the largest part of the painting and emphasizes destruction of nature: fire has caused a desertic area - influenced by Bosch's iconography - occupied by death or torture instruments. The deathly squadrons of the medium area ravage the crowd: bodies are piled up, captured, crushed by death... In the foreground, the different social hierarchies - the emperor, the cardinal, the pilgrim, the gamblers or the couple of lovers - are all of them victims of the same executioner: Death. This one prevails in the scene riding a starving horse and holding a scythe, inspired in the Apocalypse 6,8: And I saw, and behold, a pale-green horse, and he who was sitting on it - his name is Death, and hell was following him.

This apocalyptic show bears a clear message which Brueghel conveys through pictorial language: death has no mercy and exterminates all living beings.

Holbein’s Dance of Death

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. 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.

Other Dances of Death

France

Cemetery of the Innocents, Paris.
c. 1424

Church of Kernascleden.
1440 – 1460

Abbey of La Chaise-Dieu.
c. 1470

Church of Meslay-le-Grenet.
c. 1490

Kermaria Parish Church.
1490 – 1500

Church of La Ferté-Loupière.
1500 - 1510

Church of Kietzheim.
c. 1517

Trinity Basilica, Cherbourg.
1550-1560

Germany

St. Mary's Church, Lübeck.
1463

St. Mary's Church Berlin.
c. 1490

St. Ann`s Chapel, Füssen.
1606

Franciscan convent, Freiburg.
1606-1608

Chapel of the Protecting Angel's churchyard, Haselbach,
1667-1675

Chapel of Wolhusen.
c. 1677

Chapel of Jurgen, Wolgast.
1700

1760-1780
St. Michael's church, Freiburg.

Italy

Church of San Lazzaro, Côme.
1480-1500

Church of the Disciplini, Clusone.
c. 1485

Church Santa Maria in Silvis, Pisogne
1490

Chapel of San Stephano, Carisolo.
1519

Church St-Vigile, Pinzolo.
1539

Austria

Chapel of St-Michel churchyard, Metnitz.
1546

Chapel of Breitenwang.
c. 1725

St. Peter's cemetery, Salzbourg.
1770

Chapel of Elbigenalp.
1840

Chapel of Elmen.
1841

Croatia

St. Mary's Church, Beram.
1474

Denmark

Church of Nørre Alslev.
1480 - 1490

England

St-Paul's churchyard, London.
c. 1430

Rosslyn Chapel.
c. 1450

St. Mary Magdalene's Church, Newark.
1510 - 1530

Slovenia

Trinity Church, Hrastovlje.
1490

Switzerland

Dominicans' churchyard, Basel.
c. 1440

Augustinian Convent of Klingenthal, Basel.
1460 – 1480

Dominican churchyard, Berne.
1515 – 1520

Jesuit`s college, Lucern.
1615

The bridge du Moulin, Lucern.
1626-1632

Chapel St. Croix of Segendorf, Emmetten.
1710