Hans Holbein's celebrated Dance of death : illustrated by a series of photo-lithographic facsimiles from the copy of the first edition now in the British Museum : accompanied by explanatory descriptions and a consise history of the origin and subsequ

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Ilustratio by a series os

A Concise HistorF of the Origin and Subsequent De Dpment of the Subera.

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PRE FACE.

manner of Holbein and his engraver unavoidably lose much os the peculiar fascination and quaintness he- onging to the originals ; and it was that convictionwhicli induced me to attempt a series os positive sacsimiles by one of the unerring processes of whichphotography is the basis. It also seemed to me that the devices would lose much by being separated Dona the teXtS and Verses whicli, in the original Volume, serve as a partial frame-work and running Commenta , sorming an almost necessata pari os the device iiseis. I have, there re, reproduced the entire page belonging to each device. Opposite to each sacsimile will be Mund translations os the Latin texis and old French verses, accompanted

by a bries description os the device ; not omitting thoseless prominent delatis by whicli the artist has osten

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contrived to impari additional potiat, and pungency os satire, to the composition. In the Introduction, devoted to an inqui into the probabie origin os the Dance os Deatli,' and also in my Concluding remarks on iis treaiment subsequent tothe time os Holbein, I have not attempted to enter upon any os those strictly technical delatis whicli be- long to the subject when studied stom a speciallyBibliographical potiat os vlew, but have rather Sought,as briefly as possibie, to trace sucii an oviline of the subjeci as Ι cleemed calculated to interest the general

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'THE DANCE OF DE ATH.

IF ali the subjecis, mores, religious, or allegorical, which have been prosusely illustraled by the aris of the middie ages, nosingle theme has given rise to so striking a series os pictorial devices as that of the Dance os Death. V This curious and Interesting series os semi - realistic, semi - symbolicat compositions was gradually developed by severat generations os mediaevat artisis, untilit culminated, in the heinning of the I 6th centu , in those strihingemblematic designs, generalty attributed to Hans Holbein, whicli, infertilily of invention and powex os artistic execution, have never, in theirΟwn Peculiar Vein, been SurpaSSed, or even equalied, by any similar Series, ei ther ancient or modem. The subject was, in Shori, a most SuggestiVeone, being at once a terribie, though at the Same time grotesque Satire,

in Which the incongruous combination os dancing and dying compriSed a profipund and philosophicat criticism, and a sarcasticatly biling railleryupon the ordinary courses of human liis in iis various ranks. It has been termed by a celebrated French critic a gallery os sublime hus onery, a sepulchral phantasmagoria; ' and by another French writer, l'έpopέe lugubre; V-terms whicli are at once happily and accuratelyconceived ; for the grim and sardonic crudity of the allusions, combinedwith an irresistibie, though mocking and caustic drolle , are so inter- mingled with deeply tragic elemenis, osten trealed with a singularly poetical sense os grandeur, that the bufisonery itself seems to culminate in a Lindof wildly horribie sublimii y. Emile Souvestre, in his ' Voyage a Basle,' says, speaking of the PDance of Death V originalty executed there, more than a century besore the time of Ηolbein, U On ne scaurait imaginer sans l'moiro, combien te peintre a dἡpensό de l'imagination pour varier et donner hchaque schne de la drame uniforme l'inthrhi et l'imprόvue de l'oeuvre leplus variέ. V Baron Taylor and Μ. Jubinal express equat su rise at theenerin and variety with whicli the subject has been trealed ; and Coxe, in his letters on Switeterland, expressed his unisimed astonishment at the variety and invention displayed in the V Dance os Death V which he saw onthe walis of the Dominican cemetery at Basle ; while the ari osten displayed is

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Os so high a kind that Μ. Fortoul does not hesitate to say of the woodcuts of the early printed editions os the subjeci that they vivi lly recati the style,

at once large and delicate, of the painted glass of the Ι4th century, and arefit to rivallae With the very best specimens os the old schoois os ari os either Cologne or Florence. Νo other subjeci selaed upon by the artisis of the mediaevia periods or those of the Renaissance has, in stiori, been so fruitsulos striking resulis. Νeither the Ars Μoriendi, V with iis groups os angelsand demons contending sor the fouis of the departing, nor the Shis osFools,V with iis quaint and even savage onflaught upon ali the vices and sollies of the times, nor even the more genialty satirices humoum os Renard the Fox,' have led to such remark le artistic resulis in the treaimentos the respective series of illustrations to whicli they have iven rise asthe Dance os Death. V The fame may be said of VI a Danse des Aveugies, ' by Pierre Michauit, whose remarhable allegory of the three blind guides, Love, Fortune, and Death, with the appended morat, in which it is stlown that, although a sew may avoid the dominion of the two fimi, that os the last is inevitatile, was almost as popular as the ' Dance of Death. V Vel neither did that work, though apparently so Suggestiveos artistic illustration, serve to develope any very remarkable series os designs. Νor clid the three striking legends of Cupido and Atropos, by Iean Lematre, though some of the ideas are so picturesquely terribie, as, sor instance, the one in which Cupid and Death accidentally meet in their rounds, and go to drinli in a lavem, Where, aster their libations, they accidentalty change weapons, Death taking the bow and shasis of Cupid, and Cupid the dari os Death. And it is to be remarhed that, during the periods When these and other analogous subjecis formed the favourite literature of Europe, the texi of the author was osten completely oVerlaid by the exuberance and abundance of the illustrative additions of the artist-a faci eastly understood when it is recollected that the Power of readingwas confined to a se , while the capacity necessary to the underatanding ofa plain ly and expressively dra n picture Was posSeSSed by all. In order sully to appreciate the nature and peculiar meriis of the Danceos Death, V whether as a poem, in iis rude verses, or in the quaint Symbolismos iis pictorial illustrations, it is necessary to trace, as sar as Practicabie, theorion os the idea, and the successive Steps by Whicli it appears to have attained iis strihing final development as a series of literary or pictorial

devices intended to serve as a generat memento mori to man and wΟman-kind of every state and station in lise. That images os analogous character were in use in pagan times is well known, not only among the Greelis andRomans, but even with the Egyptians ; and that a link os connection maybe traced belween the thoughis and customs os pagan times With those of the earlier Christian periods is tolerably evident. Herodotus informs us that the Egyptians placed a smali image os a mummy upon the tables of theirhanquet-halis, as a reminder of the brief and uncertain duration os humanliis; and he also telis us that the Greelis adopted a similar symbolsor the fame purpose, a smali modet os an embalmed body being passed round to the guesis at balaqueis. each guest in turn repenting the formula, Eat, drinli, and be mer , for when ye are dead ye Will be like