23 September 2019

Woed of the Day: Dance of Death

DANCE OF DEATH. Originally a spectacular play, given in a churchyard, going back to the fourteenth century, when the Black Death and other epidemics had impressed the popular imagination. The plays opened with a sermon on death, and then a series of figures resembling skeletons appeared. The dancing movement was a later development. Traces of these plays are still found in Germany, France, England, and Italy. Pictorial representations of these plays were made on the walls of cemeteries and elsewhere. Among such engravings the most famous are those of Hans Holbein (1460-1524) and Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528).

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments are subject to deletion if they are not germane. I have no problem with a bit of colourful language, but blasphemy or depraved profanity will not be allowed. Attacks on the Catholic Faith will not be tolerated. Comments will be deleted that are republican (Yanks! Note the lower case 'r'!), attacks on the legitimacy of Pope Francis as the Vicar of Christ (I know he's a material heretic and a Protector of Perverts, and I definitely want him gone yesterday! However, he is Pope, and I pray for him every day.), the legitimacy of the House of Windsor or of the claims of the Elder Line of the House of France, or attacks on the legitimacy of any of the currently ruling Houses of Europe.