The Abbess

Narrator:

The dance of death...

...where death, in the form of a skeleton, summons various people to dance to their grave – a common motif in the Middle Ages.

Hans Holbein, one of the truly famous artists of the Northern European Renaissance, had great influence both as a painter and a draughtsman.

This woodcut series about the dance of death is one of his masterpieces.

The series was created in Basel, between 1523 and 1525 – a very restless time in German lands!

The Peasant War was on the horizon, and the debate about religion was still unresolved between Catholicism, Lutheranism and Calvinism, and steeped in different theological and political approaches.

Holbein depicted people from different backgrounds who meet death, and how humans became mortals.

It begins with the creation, and then the fall of man, and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise, before ending with the last judgment and the coat of arms of death.

In total, 32 different people meet their end!

The works were designed by Hans Holbein but were carved in wood by Hans Lützelburger - a common practice at the time.

Holbein's motifs show that everyone must die, regardless of class, profession, and rank.

And that death, is common to all of us...