The theme of death was a popular subject in the 15th century European art as the need to prepare for death during one’s lifetime was an integral part of contemporary mindset in this period.
The narrative and pictorial motifs of the theme of death derived from the Latin manuscript on The Art of Dying known as Ars Moriendi which was later printed as a book. The manuscript was written in the aftermath of several waves of Black Death that had swept through Europe during previous centuries. Horrific experiences of the plague drove people to confront human mortality.
The Art of Dying
The book of Ars Moriendi contained instructions on how to die well, guiding the reader through procedures and rituals preceding his last moments. Instructive images in the form of woodcuts illustrated the individual steps leading up the passage from life to death. The grim imagery gradually permeated the production of works of art in all forms throughout Europe.
The Dance of Death
The core of the death imagery was Dance of Death, an expression that originated from the French La Danse Macabre. An allegory on the all-encompassing, uncompromising death had its origins in Late Middle Ages. The theme was elaborated into a configuration of animated figures where the death personified as a skeleton leads a procession of figures representing all ranks of society, from the lowest social level to the highest.
The death usually plays a musical instrument while others dance to his tune as they head towards to their graves. A beggar, a nun, a peasant, a cardinal, a beautiful maiden, a bailiff, a knight, a king, an emperor - they are all going to meet the same end regardless of their station in life. The point of this allegory was to serve as a constant reminder of life's fragility and futility of one's earthly laurels.
The Theme of Death in Renaissance Prints
The images were widely spread and available to all social classes in forms proportionate to their respective material backgrounds. Even the least materially and financially secured classes were able to obtain a print that would serve the same purpose as the most magnificent memorials of privileged persons.
The simplest art form in which the Dance of Death was accessible was an individual print whose advantage was that it was affordable to those less well-off and it was portable. Prints would have been mounted onto a wall and thus would have been integrated into a domestic setting and their viewing would have become a daily routine.
Jolly Skeletons in Procession on The Luzern Bridge
M.A. Meadow's article offers an interpretation of the theme of danse macabre on the Luzern Bridge in Switzerland that helps to read artistic rendition of the theme. In his analysis of the paintings on wooden arches of the bridge, Meadow stresses the issue of repetition of images that form a complete cycle once the viewer has physically proceeded to the end.
He further says that the same process can be translated into the viewing of books where ‘by following the sequence, by passing from image to image, from page to page, from the past to the present, with the future continually and inevitably implicated, that we may comprehend the meaning of the Dance of Death’.The repetition of the motifs symbolising death reinforces the meaning of the picture as a representation of the Death’s presence. The viewer is led along a visual path marked by a sequence of animated figures in action. As Meadow says: ‘It is only through the repeated perception and acknowledgement of Death that the viewer may proceed through the image cycle...that he comes to perceive the significance of Death’s presence.’
Sources:
- Woods Kim W, Richardson Carol M, Lymberopoulou Angeliki, Viewing Renaissance Art, Yale University Press, 2007
- Nash, Susie, Northern Renaissance Art, Oxford University Press, 2008
- Meadow, M.A., ‘The observant pedestrian and Albrecht Dürer’s Promenade’, Art History, 15:2, June 1992, pp. 197-222.
Zuzana Minarikova - I live in London and work in publishing in Bloomsbury which is an exciting part of London, full of museums, galleries, bookshops and ...
