Dance of Death: The Sailor

c. 1526

Hans Holbein the Younger

(German, active England and Switzerland, 1497/98–1543)

Culture

Germany

Medium

woodcut

Credit Line

Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 1929.163

Catalogue raisonné

Passavant vol.3.366.29

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Location

Not on view

Description

Dance of Death is the most celebrated series of woodcuts designed by Holbein. The forty-one blocks were cut by Hans Lützelburger in the years immediately before his death in 1526, though the set was not published until 1538. Dance of Death originated as a drama in the middle of the 14th century. Following widespread epidemics such as the black plague, these plays took place in a cemetery or churchyard. Actors, dressed in pale costumes painted to resemble skeletons, personified Death and summoned a group of people from all social classes in a dancelike procession. In a period when the life span was short, the purpose of the Dance of Death was to remind the populace to prepare for the Last Judgement.