1803 Rare Book -The DANCES of DEATH - Danse Macabre by Hans Holbein, illustrated.
This beautiful book has been sold...
Search for other similar books from our bookseller friends!
(Description)
Author: Holbein, John or Hans.
Title: The Dances of Death, Through the Various Stages of Human Life: Wherein the Capriciousness of That Tyrant is Exhibited in Forty-Six Copper Plates; Done From the Original Designs, Which Were Cut in Wood, and Afterwards Painted, By John Holbein etched by D. Deuchar. Descriptions of each plate in French and English, with the Scripture Text from which the designs were taken.
Language: Text in English and French.
Publisher: London, Published by W. Smith and Co., 1803.
Size: 8.5 " X 6.5 ".
Pages: Unpaginated.
Binding: Attractive and fine gilt decorated full leather binding, finely bound in dark Hermes red calf (hinges fine - as shown) under a removable protective mylar cover.
Content: Very good content (bright and tight, some light foxing and toning - as shown).
Illustrations: Beautifully illustrated with the engraved title page of the 1786 edition in frontispiece and a total of 46 full-page engravings described in English and French.
Estimate: (USD 900 - USD 2000)
The book: Rare and attractive 1803 edition of The Danse Macabre (from the French language), also called the Dance of Death, -- an artistic genre of allegory of the Late Middle Ages on the universality of death: no matter one's station in life, the Danse Macabre unites all. The Danse Macabre consists of the dead or a personification of death summoning representatives from all walks of life to dance along to the grave, typically with a pope, emperor, king, child, and laborer. It was produced as memento mori, to remind people of the fragility of their lives and how vain were the glories of earthly life. Its origins are postulated from illustrated sermon texts; the earliest recorded visual scheme was a now-lost mural at Holy Innocents' Cemetery in Paris dating from 1424 to 1425.
The illustrator: Hans Holbein the Younger (c. 1497[6] – between 7 October and 29 November 1543) was a German painter and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style, and is considered one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century. He also produced religious art, satire, and Reformation propaganda, and he made a significant contribution to the history of book design. He is called "the Younger" to distinguish him from his father Hans Holbein the Elder, an accomplished painter of the Late Gothic school. His Dance of Death (1523–26) refashions the late-medieval allegory of the Danse Macabre as a reformist satire. Holbein's series of woodcuts shows the figure of "Death" in many disguises, confronting individuals from all walks of life. None escape Death's skeleton clutches, even the pious.