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Danse Macabre - Nuremberg Chronicle

2017

01B Danse Macabre - Nuremberg.pdf

The Danse Macabre,
or Totentanz (“dance of death” in English) marked an important milestone in the art of the Middle Ages. Ghastly figures, often skeletons with tattered hair and clothing, dance and converse with both ordinary and extraordinary people of the age. The dance’s origins as an artistic statement remain unclear. Many scholars ascribe the Black Death and other disasters of the 14th century as the foundation of fascination with the macabre, while others suggest a civilization-wide focus on moral penitence and guilt culture as the source. Despite its peak being in the late Middle Ages, the Danse Macabre endures in 19th and 20th century classical music, and the 1929 Silly Symphony animation “Skeleton Dance” by Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney

The Skeleton Dance. Animation Ub Iwerks, Music
Carl W. Stalling. Walt Disney. 1929. Short Film

The Nuremberg Chronicle
Found in Anton Koberger’s Liber Chronicarum (a text more commonly known as the Nuremberg Chronicle), this is perhaps the most well-known Danse Macabre image. The Chronicle, printed in 1493, spans world history from Biblical Creation to the “Seventh Age,” or the days of Judgement, where the dance of death takes center stage.

Anton Koberger. The Nuremburg Chronicle. Utah State University, Merrill
Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives, OV ASL 901.1 SCH 22