The crisis of the plague was so omnipresent for several centuries that
one can certainly say that a lot of painters and
artists got influenced by these disastrous conditions and all the suffering
that came along. Hans Holbein the Younger was probably one of them. Holbein was
born 1497 in Augsburg and belonged to a German family of artists. He spent most
of his life in Basel and did a lot of portraits. He also became the private
painter of King Henry VIII. In 1526 he designed a whole series of woodcuts
called Dance of Death, which were
first published in 1538. Mostly all of the 41 images illustrate the Death
escorting people to their final destiny. Every woodcut has a name or a title
written above the picture. The one I found at The British Museum website says
“Der Rychman” which is old German language and means “The Rich Man”. But even
without the title the picture shows clearly the wealth of the man. All the bags
and boxes full of coins indicate that he is not just rich but immensely
wealthy. The Death, who is sitting at the table in front of him, takes first
what the man loves the most: his money. The man raises his hands and seems to
ask the Death for forgiveness but the burned down candle and the hourglass
reveal that there will be no escape. Neither the money nor the thick stonewalls
and iron bars could prevent the Rich Man from Death.
The theme of the Dance of Death was a common genre in the
15th and 16th century. It refers to the universality of
Death and should be a reminder for the people of the fragility of life and the
mortality of earthly pleasures. Holbein showed in his woodcuts people from all
classes. His Dance of Death actually
begins with The Pope (see the
following link: http://www.dodedans.com/Eholbein06.htm) and shows no
respect for any other social group. Death haunts the king just as the old
woman, the knight, the countess or the child (to see more of the woodcuts go to
this website: http://www.lamortdanslart.com/danse/Manuscrit/Holbein/dd_holbein.htm ). In his
series Holbein shows the social equality of death, which was an attribute of
the plague of the Black Death. Holbein himself died of the plague in 1543.
Other prospective artists often copied his woodcuts of the Dance of Death.
Class divisions in the middle ages were though to be the work of god. If you were a noble, it was because god chose you to be a noble, if you were a peasant, it was because your destiny was already predetermined. This might be a stretch, but the black death's indiscriminate nature probably had a big impact during the beginning of the humanist era, since the plague revealed that everyone is susceptible to death and suffering.
ReplyDeleteThis series by Holbein is a great way to access woodcuts and social equality art in the sixteenth century. Thank you for the references to the other sites, which were great. With class divisions and comments, and reply above, I think we could say that social classes were conceived to be part of the divine order, as theorized by the church, which I discussed in class. But many people override those conditions when we look at actual history. One thing to note is that if you had $$, you could flee to the countryside.
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