The Dance of Death

es of them on wood.-Copies on copper by anonymous artists.-By Wenceslaus Hollar.-Other anonymous arti

on to Madame Jehanne de Touszele. 2. Diverses tables de mort, non painctes, mais extraictes de l'escripture saincte, colorées par Docteurs Ecclesiastiques, et umbragées par philosophes. 3. Over each print, passages from scripture, allusive to the subject, in Latin, and at bottom the substance of them in four French verses. 4. Figures de la mort moralement descriptes et depeinctes selon l'authorité de l'scripture, et des Sainctz Peres. 5. Les

e Mortalité. Sermon de S. Jan Chrysostome, pour nous exhorter à patience: traictant aussi de la consommation de ce siecle, et du second advenement de Jesus Christ, de la joye eternelle des justes, de la peine et damnation des mauvais, et autres choses necessaires à un chascun chrestie

orge ?mylius, as he also states in some verses at the beginning; but several of the mottoes at bottom are different and enlarged. It has forty-two cuts, the additional one, probably not by the former artist, being that of the beggar sitting on the ground before an arched gate: extremely fine, particularly the beggar's head. This subject has no connection with the Dance of Death, and is placed in another part of the volume, though in subsequent editions incorporated with the other prints. The "Medicina anim?" is very different from the French one. There is some reason for supposing that the Frellons had al

blication of the work in France or Germany, or, in other words, whether at Lyons or Basle. I

o pr?sentia c

egis, sive ea

rem? qualis s

aribus Musa

rat lepidis epi

ertens est i

is doctissime

sitis reddita

rved, scarcely have preferred a French text for his Latin version. This circumstance furnishes likewise, an argument

ce's attention to the figures in the book, in order to remind him that all must die to obtain immortality; and enlarges on the necessity of living well. He concludes with a wish that the Lord will long and happily preserve

the device of the crab and butterfly. At the end, "Excudebat Joannes Frellonius, 1547," 12mo. This edition has twelve more cuts than those of 1538 and 1542, and eleven more than that of 1545, being, the soldier, the gamblers, the drunkards, the fool, th

. Qu? his addita sunt, sequens pagina commonstrabit, Lugduni sub scuto Coloniensi, 1547." 12mo. At the end, Excudebat Johannes Frellonius, 1547. This editio

rmon de patience, par Sainct Jehan Chrysostome. A Lyon. A l'escu de Cologne, chez Jehan Frellon, 1547." With the device of the crab and butterfly. At the end, "Imprimé a Lyon à l'e

MDXLIX." 12mo. With the device of the crab and butterfly. At the end, the same device on a larger scale in a circle. Fifty-three cuts. The scriptural passages are in Latin. To this edition Frellon has prefixed a preface, in which he complains of a pirated copy of the work in Italian by a printer at Venice, which will be more particularly noticed hereaft

s à Georgio ?mylio in Latinum versa, cumulat?. Qu? his addita sunt, sequens pagina commonstrabit. Basile?, 1554. 1

ional cuts, viz. 1. A group of boys, as a triumphal procession, with military trophies. 2. The bride; the husband plays on a lute, whilst Death leads the wife in tears. 3. The bridegroom led by Death blowing a trumpet. Both these subjects are appropriately described in the verses below. 4. A group of boy warriors, one on horseback with a standard. 5. Another group of boys with drums

nto Latin, Italian, Spanish, German, and English;[113] a statement that stands greatly in need of confirmation as t

è Gall. à G. ?milio in Latinum versa

Wolsschaten's designation, "Prevost van sijne conincklijcke Majesteyts Munten des Heertoogdoms van Brabant, &c. MDCLIV." 12mo. The author of the text, which is mixed up with poetry and historical matter, was prefect of the mint in the Duchy of Brabant.[115] This edition contains eighteen cuts, among which the following subjects are from the original blocks. 1. Three boys. 2. The married couple. 3. The pedlar. 4. The shipwreck. 5. The beggar. 6. The corrupt judge. 7. The astrologer. 8. The old man. 9. The physician. 10. The priest with the eucharist. 11. The monk. 12. The abbess. 13. The abbot. 14. The duke. Four others, viz. the child, the emperor, the countess, and the pope, are copies, and very badly engraved. The blocks

he present occasion: the supposed one of 1530 has not been included in this list, a

ly is extended, and touches with the back of it the mantle on which the helmet and shield of arms are placed. He errs likewise in making the female look towards a sort of dog's head, according to him, under the mantle and right-hand of her husband, which, he adds, might be taken for the pummell of his sword, and that she fondles

E DESIGNS, AND ENG

se necessarie à ciascun Christiano, per ben vivere, e ben morire. Con gratia e privilegio de l'illustriss. Senato Vinitiano, per anni dieci. Appresso Vincenzo Vaugris al segno d'Erasmo, MDXLV." 12mo. With a device of the brazen serpent, repeated at the end. It has all the cuts in the genuine edition of the same date, except that of the beggar at the gate. It contains a very moral dedication to Signor Antonio Calergi by the publisher Vaugris or Valgrisi; in which, with unjustifiable confidence, he enlarges on the great beauty of the work, the cuts in which are, in his estimation, not merely equal, but far superior to those in the French edition in design and engraving. They certainly approach the nearest to the fine origin

others of subjects belonging also to the "Simolachri," are inserted in this work, but very badly imitated, and two of them reversed. In the subject of the Pope there is in the original a brace of grotesque devils, one of which is completely erased in Glissenti, and a plug inserted where the other had been scooped out. A similar rasure of a devil occurs in the subject of the two rich men in conversation, the demon blowing with a bell

la gratia. In Venetia, 1670." 8vo. Of which there had already been three editions; there are six of the prints from th

ori, e diletti del mondo, &c. In Venetia, 1677." 24mo. There are twenty-five of

sts, instead of the original , and it is also seen on the cut of the soldier pierced by the lance of Death. Two have the date 1546. In that of the monk, whom, in the original, Death seizes by the cowl or hood,

five of them. They are all reversed, except the nobleman; and although not devoid of merit, they are not only very inferior to the fine originals, but also to the Italian copies in No. I. The first two subjects are newly designed; the two Devils in that of the Pope are omitted, and there are several variations, always for the worse, in many of the others, of which a tasteless exam

Papillon's blunders is equally curious and absurd. He had seen an edition of the Emblems of Sambucus, with cuts, bearing the mark in which there is a fine portrait of the author with his favourite dog, and under the latter the word BOMBO, which Papillon gravely states to be the name of the engraver; and finding the same word on another of the emblems which has also the dog, he concludes that all the cuts which have not the were engraved by the same BOMBO. Had Papillon, a good artist in his time, but an ignorant man, been able to comprehend the verses belonging to that particular emble

els about 1576, which date cannot possibly apply to the artist in question; but at the same time, he adds, that he is said to have engraved on wood the cuts in a little catechism printed at Antwerp that have the monogram . These are certainly very beautiful, in accordance with many others with the same mark, and very superior in design to those which have it in the "Imagines Mortis." M. Malpé has also an article for Antony Silvyus or Silvius, born at Antwerp about 1525, and he mentions several books with e

printed in England during the reign of Elizabeth, and particularly on a beautiful set of initial letters, some of which contain the story of Cupid and Psyche, from the supposed designs by Raphael, and other subjects from Ovid's Metamorphoses: these have been counterfeited, and perhaps in England. The initial G, in this alphabet, with the subject of Leda and the swan, was inadvertently prefixed to t

o or three that are not in either of them. These have fallen into the hands of a modern bookseller, but there can be no doubt that there were other editions which contained the whole set. The most of them have the letters G. S. with the gra

intitled "Libellus Davidis Chytr?i de morte et vita ?terna. Editio postrema; cui addit? sunt imagines mortis, illustrata Epigrammatis D. Georgio ?mylio, Witeberg?. Impressus à Matth?o Welack, anno MDXC." 12mo. The cuts, fifty-three in number, are, on the whol

t figuren. S. Gallen, 1581." 4to. See Janssen, Essai sur l'origine d

some of the preceding, is placed here as differing materially from them with

ichs leben

ain lau

nach seim

stu klare

crinn mit a

z zu her

u Ewigs ha

erben de

LII

os exposcere

multos ann

atale velit si

avido pector

r," i. e. the Adulterer, representing a man discovering the adulterer in bed with his wife, and plunging his sword through both of them, Death guiding his hands. On the opposite page to each engraving there is a dialogue between Death and the party, and at bottom a Latin hexameter. The subject of the Pleader has the unknown mark , and on that of the Duchess in bed, there is the date 1542. From the abo

ns, esq. The cuts were engraved by the brother of the celebrated Bewick, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and a pupil of Hodgson, who was an engraver on wood of some merit at that time. They are but indifferently executed, but would have been better had the artist been more liberally encouraged by the master, who was the publisher o

lbein, in a series of fifty-two engravings on woo

yet i

name of life? Y

usand Deaths: ye

these odd

ksp

tim from an edition with Hollar's cuts, published by Mr. Edwards. The cuts, with two or three exceptions, are imitated from the originals, but all the human figures are ridiculo

Latin and French. London. Printed for Whittingham and Arliss, juvenile library, Paternoster-row." 12mo. The frontispiece and the rest of the cuts, with two exceptions, from the same blocks as those used for the last-mentioned edition. The preface, with very slight variation, is abridged from that by

unschen, 1832. Auf kosten des Herausgebers," 12mo. or, "Hans Holbein's Dance of Death in fifty-three lithographic leaves, faithfully taken from wood engravings. Published by J. Schlotthauer, roya

satisfy all enquiries relating to it. Massman, however, has added to this volume a sort of explanatory appendix, in which some of the editions are mentioned. He thinks it possible that the cholera

AME DESIGNS, EN

he tree of knowledge, each holding the apple presented by the serpent. Between them is a circular table, on which are eight sculls of a Pope, Emperor, Cardinal, &c. with appropriate mottoes in Latin. On the outer edge of the table STATVTVM EST OMNIBVS HOMINIBVS SEMEL MORI POST HOC AVTEM IVDICIVM. In the centre the letters MVS, the terminating syllable of

t placed in the same order, and all are reversed, except Nos. 57 and 60. No. 12 is not reversed, but very much altered, a sort of duplicate of the Miser. No. 50, the Jew, and No. 51, the Jewess, are entirely new. The latter is sitting at a table, on which is a heap of money, and Death appears to be giving effective directions to a demon to strangle her. No. 52 is also new. A castle within a hedge. Death enters one of

e Roman capitals, in a passage from Psalm 46, in the year 1623. This is followed by the Latin epigram, or address to the reader, by Geo. ?mylius, whose translations of the original French couplets are also given, as well as the originals themselves.

middle exhibits a circular Dance of Death leading by the hand persons of all ranks from the Emperor downwards. In the centre of this circle "Toden Tantz zu finden bey Paulus Furst Kunst handlern," and quite at the bottom of the page, "G. Stra. in. A. Khol fecit." Next comes an exhortation on Death to the reader in Latin verse, followed by several poems in German and Latin, those in German signed G. P. H. Immediately afterwards, and before the first cut of the work is another elegantly engraved frontispiece representing an arched gate of stone surmounted with three sculls of a Pope, a Cardinal, and a King, between a vase of flowers on the right, and a pot of incense, a cock standing near it, on the left. On the keystone of the gate are two tilting lances in saltier, to which a shield and helmet are suspended. Through the arch is seen a chamber, in which there seems to be a bier, and near it a cross. On the left of the gate is a niche with a scull and bones in it. Below are two large figures of Death. That on the left has a wreath of flowers round its head, and is beating a bell with a bone. Under him is an owl, and on the side of his left knee a scythe. The other Death has a ca

sagen kan Here l

nterthan. Or, which

bj

Furst

be gathered from the Roman capitals in two scriptural quotations, the one in Latin, the other in German, ending wit

present occasion. Instead of the trump-marine, which one of the Deaths plays on in the original cut,

M

raficq, car il f

l'effort de m

cu, il est temp

itable est po

arch

ardon, arrest

marchant appa

e un temps je vi

evras l'offran

t the work afterwards appeared without them, and with the additional mark i. on every print, and intended for Holbein invenit. It is very certain that Hollar himself did not place this mark on the prints; he has never introduced it in any of his copies from Holbein, always expressing that painter's name in these several ways: , inv. pinxit, H. Holbein inv. H. Holbein inventor. On one of his portraits from the Arundel collection he has placed " incidit in lignum." No copy, however, of this portrait has occurred in wood, and, if this be only a conjecture on the part of the engraver, the distance of time between the respective artists is an objection to its validity, though it is possible that Holbein might have engraved on wood, because there are prints which have all the appearance of belonging to him, that have his usual mark, accompanied by an engraving tool. There is no text to these etchings, except the Latin scriptural passages under each, that occur in the original editions in that language. As a sort of frontispiece to the work, Hollar has transferred the last cut of the allegorical shield of arms, supported by a lady and gentleman, to the beginning, with the appropriate title of MORTALIVM NOBILITAS. The other subjects are, 1. Adam and Eve in Paradise. 2. Their expulsion from Paradise. 3. Adam digging, Eve spinning. 4. The Pope. 5. The Emperor. 6. The

so it is to be supposed that Diepenbecke, his pupil, would entertain the same opinion of them, and that he might have suggested to Hollar the making etchings of them, undertaking himself to furnish appropriate borders. But how shall we account for the introduction of so many of the spurious and inferior designs, if he had the means of using the originals? Many books were formerly excessively rare, which, from peculiar circumstances, not necessary to be here detai

copper are retouched. Previously to this event good impressions must have been extremely rare, at least on the continent, as they are not found in the very rich collections of Winckler or Brandes, nor are they mentioned by the foreign writers on engraving. To Mr. Edwards's publication of Hollar's prints there was prefixed a short dissertation on the Dance of Death, which is here again submitted to public attention in a consider

only of which he appears to have executed, his death probably taking place before they could be completed. These are, 1. The Pope crowning the Emperor, with "Moriatur sacerdos magnus." 2. The rich man disregarding the beggar, with "Qui obturat aurem suam ad c

th leading all ranks of people. It is only an improved copy of an old wood-cut in Lydgate's works, already

pagnia de Giesu." Venetia, 1669, 8vo. It has several engravings, among which are the following, after the original designs. 1. Queen. 2. Nobleman. 3. Mer

nden ben Johann Baptista Mayr, in Saltzburg. Anno 1682. 4to." Prefixed is an engraved frontispiece representing a ruined arch, under which is a coffin, and before it the King of Terrors between two other figures of Death mounted respectively on an elephant and camel. In the foreground, Adam and Eve, tied to the forbidden tree of knowledge, between several other

n. In that of the Pedler the artist has introduced some figures in the distance of the original soldier. Among other variations the costume of the time of William III. is sometimes very ludicrously adopted, especially in the frontispiece, where the author is represented writing at a desk, and near him

temptation. 3. The expulsion from Paradise. 4. Adam digging, Eve spinning. 5. Concert of Deaths. 6. The Infant. 7. The new married couple. 8. The Duke. 9. The Advocate. 10. The Abbot. 11. The Monk. 12. The Abbess. 13. The Soldier. 14. The Merchant. 15. The Pedler. 16. The Fool. 17. The Blind Man. 18. The Old Woman. 19. T

t e'er h

ce after

l were then numbered at bo

, with necessary notes by John George Meintel in the service of his Serene Highness of Brandenburg, and parson of Petersaurach." It is said to have been originally published in 1707, which is very probable, as Rusting, of whom very little is recorded, was born about 1650. In the early part of his life he practised as an army surgeon. He was a great admirer and follower of the doctrines of Balthasar Bekker in his "Mo

6. The Pedler. The rest are, on the whole, original designs, yet with occasional hints from the Lyons cuts; the best of them are, the Masquerade, the Rope-dancer, and the Skaiters. The frontispiece i

nd sciences, intermixed with Deaths' heads, all of which are trampled under foot by Death himself. At bottom, Lucan's line, "Mors sceptra ligonibus ?quat." The tablet is surmounted by a medallion of Holbein, supported by two genii, one of whom decorates the portrait with flowers, whilst another lets loose a butterfly, and a third is employed in blowing bubbles. On the tablet itself is a second title, "Le triomphe de la mort, gravé d'apres les dessins originaux de Jean Holbein par Chrn. de Mechel, graveur à Basle, MDCCLXXX." This frontispiece has been purposely inverted for the present work. The other subjects are: No. 2. The Temptation. 3. Expulsion from Paradise. 4. Adam digging, Eve spinning. 5.

accompany Death in the dance. The despair of the king, the dejection of the queen, accompanied by her little dog, the terror of the soldier who hears the drum of Death, the struggling of the female, the reluctance of the monk, and the sorrow of the poor infant, are depicted with equal spirit and veracit

ed that he had specified them. The particulars that follow were obtained by the compiler of the present dissertation from M. de Mechel himself when he was in London. He had not been able to trace the drawings previously to their falling into the hands of M. de Crozat,[123] at whose sale, about 1771, they were purchased by Counsellor Fleischmann of Strasburg, and M. de Mechel having very emphatically expressed his admiration of them whilst they were in the possession of M. Fleischmann, that gentleman very generously offered them as a present to him. M. de Mechel, however, declined the offer, but requested they might be deposited in the public library at Basle, among other precious

of these drawings in their present state, with a view to ascertain, as nearly as possible, whether they carry indisputable marks of Holbein's art and manner of

ding a frontispiece totally different from that in the volume here described. There are likew

d by Adam and Eve holding the forbidden fruit. Over the medallion, the three Fates, the whole within an arch before a pediment. On each side, a plain column, supporting a pyramid, &c. On the other leaf a copy of the engraved title to M. de Mechel's work with the substitution of Deuchar's name. After the printed title is a portrait, as may be supposed, of Holbein, within a border containing six ovals of various subjects, and a short preface or account of that artist, but accompanied with some very inaccurate statements. The subjects are inclosed, like Hollar's, within four different borders, separately engraved, three of them borrowed, with a slight variation in one, from Diepenbeke, the fourth being probably Deuchar's invention. The

, "Death's Dance, a poem by Ludwig Bechstein, with forty-eight engravings in faithful outlines from H. Holbein." These very elegant etchings are by Frenzel,

e some use of those of Death and the Fool, and Death and the Hermit, in the old Dance at Basle. On the other hand, he has been imitated, 1. in "La Periere Theatre des bons engins. 1561." 24mo. where the rich man bribing the judge is introduced at fo. 66. 2. The figure of the Swiss gentleman in "Recueil de la diversité des habits." Paris, 1567. 12mo. is copied from the last print in the Lyons book