The Dance of Death: Exhibited in Elegant Engravings on Wood with a Dissertation on the Several Representations of that Subject but More Particularly on Those Ascribed to Macaber and Hans HolbeinDouce, Francis
History
The Dance of Death: Exhibited in Elegant Engravings on Wood with a Dissertation on the Several Representations of that Subject but More Particularly on Those Ascribed to Macaber and Hans Holbein
Douce, Francis
Bible. Old Testament -- Illustrations; Dance of death
VI. In the German volume, the title of which is already given in the first
article of the engravings from the Basle painting,[120] there are
twenty-nine subjects belonging to the present work; the rest relating to
the Basle dance, except two 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 [monogram: G. S.] with the graving tool, and
one has the date 1576. The name of this artist is unknown; but M. Bartsch
has mentioned several other engravings by him, omitting, however, the
present, which, it is to be observed, sometimes vary in design from the
originals.
VII. "Imagines Mortis illustratæ epigrammatis Georgii Æmylii theol.
doctoris. Fraxineus Æmylio Suo. Criminis ut poenam mortem mors sustulit
una: sic te immortalem mortis imago facit." With a cut of Death and the
old man. This is the middle part only of a work, intitled "Libellus
Davidis Chytræi de morte et vita æterna. Editio postrema; cui additæ sunt
imagines mortis, illustrata Epigrammatis D. Georgio Æmylio, Witebergæ.
Impressus à Matthæo Welack, anno MDXC." 12mo. The cuts, fifty-three in
number, are, on the whole, tolerably faithful, but coarsely engraved. In
the subject of the Pope the two Devils are omitted, and, in that of the
Counsellor, the Demon blowing with a bellows into his ear is also wanting.
Some have the mark [monogram: cross], and one that of [monogram: W] with a
knife or graving tool.
VIII. "Todtentanz durch alle stendt der menschen, &c. furgebildet mit
figuren. S. Gallen, 1581." 4to. See Janssen, Essai sur l'origine de la
gravure, i. 122, who seems to make them copies of the originals.
IX. The last article in this list of the old copies, though prior in date
to some of the preceding, is placed here as differing materially from them
with respect to size. It is a small folio, with the following title,
"Todtentantz,
Das menschlichs leben anders nicht
Dann nur ain lauff zum Tod
Und Got ain nach seim glauben richt
Dess findstu klaren tschaid
O Mensch hicrinn mit andacht lisz
Und fassz zu hertzen das
So wirdsttu Ewigs hayls gewisz
Kanst sterben dester bas.
MDXLIIII.
Desine longævos exposcere sedulus annos
Inque bonis multos annumerare dies
Atque hodie, fatale velit si rumpere filum
Atropos, impavido pectore disce mori."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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