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Page Number: 29
Text: THE DANCE OF DEATH. THE celebrity of a subject which has been distinguished by the labours of such artists as Holbein and Hollar,, seems necessarily to demand some investigation of its origin...
Show more THE DANCE OF DEATH. THE celebrity of a subject which has been distinguished by the labours of such artists as Holbein and Hollar,, seems necessarily to demand some investigation of its origin*. In the dark ages of monkish bigotry and superstition^ the deluded people, terrified into a belief that the fear of death was acceptable to the great Author of their existence, had placed * It would be a piece of injustice not to mention, that this has already been done in a very able manner, by a respected friend of the compiler of the present essay, in a little work, intitled " Emblems of Mortality," ornamented with copies in Mood, of the Dance of Death, by J. Bewick, the brother of the admirable artist who executed the cuts to a history of quadrupeds, lately published. The work was printed for T.Hodgson, Clerkenvvell, in 1789, 12mo. The editor of it will immediately perceive that no rivality is here intended; that in the pursuit of a subject of this nature many of the same authorities must have naturally presented themselves, and in order to connect it properly, must again be of course adopted. Independently of these, the rest of this slight performance is only designed as supplemental.
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Page Number: 30
Text: 14 *HE DANCE OF DEATH. one of their principal gratifications in contemplating it amidst ideas the most horrid and disgusting: hence the frequent descriptions of mortality in all it...
Show more 14 *HE DANCE OF DEATH. one of their principal gratifications in contemplating it amidst ideas the most horrid and disgusting: hence the frequent descriptions of mortality in all its shapes amongst their writers, and the representations of this kind, in their books of religious offices, and the paintings and sculptures of their ecclesiastic buildings. They had altogether lost sight of the consolatorjr doctrines of the Gospel, which regard death in no terrific point of view whatever ; a discovery reserved for the discernment of modern and enlightened Christians, who contemplate scenes which excited gloom and melancholy in the minds of their forefathers, with the gratification of philosophic curiosity. Some exceptions, however, to this remark are not wanting, for we may yet trace the imbecility of former ages in the decorations of many of our monuments, tricked out in all the silly ornaments of deaths' heads and marrow-bones. The most favourite subject of the kind, however, was what is usually denominated the Dance of Death, or a representation of Death in the act of leading all ranks and conditions of men to the grave; with gesticulations not a little bordering upon the grotesque, though probably without any view to provoke the mirth of the spectator in those times. One of the most ancient still existing, is that at Basil in Switzer-
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Page Number: 31
Text: THE DANCE OF DEATH. land, in the church-yard formerly belonging to the convent of Dominicans, Svhich is said to have been painted at the instance of the fathers and prelates assisting at the ...
Show more THE DANCE OF DEATH. land, in the church-yard formerly belonging to the convent of Dominicans, Svhich is said to have been painted at the instance of the fathers and prelates assisting at the grand council at Basil, in 1431, in memory of a plague which happened soon afterwards, and during its continuance. The name of the painter is unknown, and will probably ever remain so, for no dependence can be had upon vague conjectures of those who, without any authority, or even the smallest probability, have attempted to ascertain it. To refute, or even to mention the blunders which have been committed by most of the travellers who have described the town of Basil, when they discuss this subject, would fill a volume : it will be sufficient to notice an assertion of Keysler, that the painting was executed by Hans Bok, a celebrated painter of this place, who, however, from the testimony of Scheutzer, in his Itinerary, was not born till 1584. From some inscriptions on the spot it appears to have been retouched, or perhaps renewed, in 1566 and 1616; the first time probably by Hans Klauber, whose name occurs in the lines addressed by Death to the Painter. It has been frequently supposed that the Basil painting was the first qf the kind; but this is extremely doubtful, from the knowledge we have of many others of apparently equal antiquity.
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Page Number: 32
Text: 16 THE DANCE OF DEATH. Many of the bridges in Germany and Switzerland were ornamented in this manner, a specimen of which is still to be seen at Lucerne; and it is probable that al...
Show more 16 THE DANCE OF DEATH. Many of the bridges in Germany and Switzerland were ornamented in this manner, a specimen of which is still to be seen at Lucerne; and it is probable that almost every church of eminence was decorated with a Dance of Death. In the cloisters of St. Innocent's church at Paris, in those belonging to the old cathedral of St. Paul at London*, and in St. Mary's church at Berlin, these paintings were to be seen. At Klingen-thal, a convent in the Little Basil, are the remains of a Dance of Death, differently designed from that at the Dominicans, and thought to be more ancient. The figures remaining till very lately in Hungerford's chapel, in the cathedral at Salisbury, and known by the title of Death and the Young Man, were undoubtedly part of a Death's Dance, as might be further insisted on from the fragment of another compartment which was close to them. In the church at Hexham, in Northumberland, are the remains of a Death's Dance; and at Feschamps, in Normandy, it is carved in stone, between the pillars of a church; the figures are about eighteen inches high. Even fragments of painted glass, * On the walls of a cloister on the north side of St. Paul's, called Pardon-church-haugh, was painted the Machabre, or Dance of Death, a common subject on the walls of cloisters or religious places. This was a single piece, a long train of all orders of men, from the Pope to the lowest of human beings; each figure has as his^partner, Death; the first shaking his
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Page Number: 33
Text: THE DANCE OF DEATH. 17 whereon this subject has been depicted,, with old English verses over the figures, may contribute to shew how very common it has been in our own country. P. C. Hilcher,...
Show more THE DANCE OF DEATH. 17 whereon this subject has been depicted,, with old English verses over the figures, may contribute to shew how very common it has been in our own country. P. C. Hilcher, in a tract printed at Dresden in 1705, has taken notice of other Dances of Death at Dresden, Annaberg, Leipzig, and Berne. Dr. Nugent has described one in St. Mary's church at Lubeck, which he states to have been painted in 1463. The origin of all these is perhaps to be sought for in an ancient pageant, or religious farce, invented by the clergy, for the purpose of at once amusing and keeping the people in ignorance. In this all ranks and conditions of life were personated and mixed together in a general dance, in the course of which every one in his turn vanishes from the scene, to shew that none were exempted from the stroke of death. This dance was performed in the churches, and can be traced back remembering hour-glass. Our old poet Lydgate, who flourished in the year 1430, translated a poem on the subject, from the French verses which attended a painting of the same kind about St. Innocent's cloister, at Paris. The original verses were made by Macaber, a German, in his own language. This shews the antiquity of the subject, and the origin of the hint from which Holbein composed his famous painting at Basil. This cloister, the dance, and innumerable fine monuments (for here were crowded by far the most superb) fell victims to the sacrilege of the Protector Somerset, who demolished the whole, and carried the materials to his palace then erecting in the Strand.Pennant's London, vol. ii. p. 135. C
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Page Number: 34
Text: IS THE DANCE OF DEATH. as far as the year 1424*; it was called the Dance of Macaber, from a German poet of that name, who first composed some verses under the same title. Of this person very ...
Show more IS THE DANCE OF DEATH. as far as the year 1424*; it was called the Dance of Macaber, from a German poet of that name, who first composed some verses under the same title. Of this person very little is known, but Fabricius thinks the poem more ancient than the paintingsf. His work has been translated into Latin and French, in the last of which languages there are some very ancient and very modern editions. The earliest allusion to the subject, but whether to the above-mentioned farce or to the paintings seems uncertain, is in the following lines, from the Visions of Pierce the Plowman, who wrote about 1350. Death came drivynge after, and all to dust pashed, Kynges and kaysers, knightes and popes Learned and lewde, he ne let no man stande That he hitte even, he never stode after. Many

The Wenceslaus Hollar Collection

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