The dance of death in painting and in print / by T. Tindall Wildridge.

  • Willdridge, T. Tindall.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The dance of death in painting and in print / by T. Tindall Wildridge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    This Dance is painted upon panels on the walls of a chapel on the north side of the Marienkirche. Our own country is not wanting in instances. Old St. Paul's had its Dance of Death (in the cloister called Pardon-church haugh according to Pennant), which was demolished by the Protector Somerset, who carried off as materials the most splendid monuments to build his palace in the Strand. Salisbury Cathedral had its Dance, in a chapel. Hexham has or had some slight remains. But the most noteworthy English painting was the life-size series by Holbein in the Palace of Whitehall, in fresco, painted for Henry VHI, and which was unfortunately burnt down in 1697. With the advent of printing the Dance of Death extended its admonitory gambols among the people, though probably what was gained in popularity was lost in sanctity and salutary effect. The first book at all worthy to be compared with the fresco paintings of the Dance, and which, indeed, as being the model for all subsequent attempts, may be considered the first book of designs on the subject, was that printed at Lyons in 1538, by Melchior and Caspar Trechsel, with forty-one exquisite wood-cuts. Under different titles (the first was Simulachres et Historiees faces de la Mort ) and in various languages, it seems to have appeared in twelve editions up to the year 1573. This is the work which is often and erroneously styled Holbein's Dance of Death. Two instances have been given, and others follow, where the Dance has been the subject of Holbein's pencil, so that, without examination, it has generally been found convenient to ascribe all good examples, and some indifferent, to that great painter, not only in execution but design. But that Holbein was not the designer of the Simulachres is evident, for the dedication of the edition of