1898 Scarce Book -The DANCE of DEATH - Danse Macabre by Hans Holbein, illustrated.
(Description)
Author: By Hans Holbein, with an introductory note by Austin Dobson.
Title: The Dance of Death by Hans Holbein with an introductory note by Austin Dobson.
Language: Text in English and French.
Publisher: London: George Bell and Sons, York Street, Covent Garden, and New York
Mdcccxcviij 1898.
Size: small 5 " X 3.5 ".
Pages: 43 pages+ (98) unpaginated.
Binding: Very good original half vellum binding (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed - as shown) under a removable protective mylar cover. Upper edge gilt.
Content: Very good content (bright, tight, and clean - as shown).
Illustrations: Beautifully illustrated with 49 engravings described in English and French. This book features 49 woodblock prints based on Hans Holbein's original medieval designs of the Dance of Death. The woodblocks were commissioned by Francis Douce and are nearly an exact copy of the original woodcuts published by Hans Holbein in 1538.
Estimate: (Scarce with no or few other copies available for sale worldwide).
The book: Rare and attractive 1898 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 – 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.