The Dance of Death

Rusting’s work consists of thirty neat engravings, of which the following are copied from the Lyons wood-cuts. 1. The King, much varied. 2. The Astrologer. 3. The Soldier. 4. The Monk. 5. The Old Man. 6. The Pedler. The rest are, on the whole, original designs, yet with occasional hints from the Lyons cuts; the best of them are, the Masquerade, the Rope-dancer, and the Skaiters. The frontispiece is in two compartments; the upper one, Death crowned, sitting on a throne, on each side of him a Death trumpeter; the lower, a fantastic Dance of seven Deaths, near a crowned skeleton lying on a couch.

XI. “Le triomphe de la Mort.” A Basle, 1780, folio. This is the first part of a collection of the works of Hans Holbein, engraved and published by M. Chretien de Mechel, a celebrated artist, and formerly a printseller in the above city. It has a dedication to George III. followed by explanations in French of the subjects, in number 46, and in the following order; No. 1. A Frontispiece, representing a tablet of stone, on one side of which Holbein appears behind a curtain, which is drawn aside by Death in order to exhibit to him the grand spectacle of the scenes of human life which he is intended to paint; this is further designated by a heap of the attributes of greatness, dignities, wealth, arts, and sciences, intermixed with Deaths’ heads, all of which are trampled under foot by Death himself. At bottom, Lucan’s line, “Mors sceptra ligonibus æquat.” The tablet is surmounted by a medallion of Holbein, supported by two genii, one of whom decorates the portrait with flowers, whilst another lets loose a butterfly, and a third is employed in blowing bubbles. On the tablet itself is a second title, “Le triomphe de la mort, gravé d’apres les dessins originaux de Jean Holbein par Chrn. de Mechel, graveur à Basle, MDCCLXXX.” This frontispiece has been purposely inverted for the present work. The other subjects are: No. 2. The Temptation. 3. Expulsion from Paradise. 4. Adam digging, Eve spinning. 5. The Pope. 6. The Cardinal. 7. The Duke. 8. The Bishop. 9. The Canon. 10. The Monk. 11. The Abbot. 12. The Abbess. 13. The Preacher. 14. The Priest. 15. The Physician. 16. The Astrologer. 17. The Emperor. 18. The King. 19. The Empress. 20. The Queen. 21. The Duchess. 22. The Countess. 23. The New-married Couple. 24. The Nun. 25. The Nobleman. 26. The Knight. 27. The Gentleman. 28. The Soldier. 29. The Judge. 30. The Counsellor. 31. The Advocate. 32. The Merchant. 33. The Pedler. 34. The Shipwreck. 35. The Wine-carrier. 36. The Plowman. 37. The Miser. 38. The Robber. 39. The Drunkard. 40. The Gamblers. 41. The Old Man. 42. The Old Woman. 45. The Blind Man. 44. The Beggar. 45. The Infant. 46. The Fool.

M. Mechel has added another print on this subject, viz. the sheath of a dagger, a design for a chaser. It is impossible to exceed the beauty and skill that are manifested in this fine piece of art. The figures are, a king, queen, warrior, a young woman, a monk, and an infant, all of whom most unwillingly accompany Death in the dance. The despair of the king, the dejection of the queen, accompanied by her little dog, the terror of the soldier who hears the drum of Death, the struggling of the female, the reluctance of the monk, and the sorrow of the poor infant, are depicted with equal spirit and veracity. The original drawing is in the public library at Basle, and ascribed to Holbein. There is a general agreement between these engravings and the original wood-cuts. Twenty-three are reversed. In No. 13 the jaw-bone in the hand of Death is not distinct. In No. 16 a cross is added, and in No. 17 two heads.

Mr. Coxe, in his Travels in Switzerland, has given some account of the drawings copied as above by M. de Mechel, in whose possession he saw them. He states that they were sketched with a pen, and slightly shaded with Indian ink. He mentions M. de Mechel’s conjecture that they were once in the Arundel collection, and infers from thence that they were copied by Hollar, which, however, from what has been already stated on the subject of Hollar’s print of the Soldier and Death, as well as from other variations, could not have been the case. Mr. Coxe proceeds to say that four of the subjects in M. de Mechel’s work are not in the drawings, but were copied from Hollar. It were to be wished that he had specified them. The particulars that follow were obtained by the compiler of the present dissertation from M. de Mechel himself when he was in London. He had not been able to trace the drawings previously to their falling into the hands of M. de Crozat,123 at whose sale, about 1771, they were purchased by Counsellor Fleischmann of Strasburg, and M. de Mechel having very emphatically expressed his admiration of them whilst they were in the possession of M. Fleischmann, that gentleman very generously offered them as a present to him. M. de Mechel, however, declined the offer, but requested they might be deposited in the public library at Basle, among other precious remains of Holbein’s art. This arrangement, however, did not take place, and it happened in the mean time that two nephews of Prince Gallitzin, minister from Russia to the court of Vienna, having occasion to visit M. Fleischmann, then much advanced in years, and his memory much impaired, prevailed on him to concede the drawings to their uncle, who, on learning from M. de Mechel what had originally passed between himself and M. Fleischmann, sent the drawings to him, with permission to engrave and publish them, which was accordingly done, after they had been detained two years for that purpose. They afterwards passed into the Emperor of Russia’s collection of fine arts at Petersburg.

It were greatly to be wished that some person qualified like Mr. Ottley, if such a one can be found, would take the trouble to enter on a critical examination of these drawings in their present state, with a view to ascertain, as nearly as possible, whether they carry indisputable marks of Holbein’s art and manner of execution, or whether, as may well be suspected, they are nothing more than copies, either by himself or some other person, from the original wood engravings.

M. de Mechel had begun this work in 1771, when he had engraved the first four subjects, including a frontispiece totally different from that in the volume here described. There are likewise variations in the other three. He was extremely solicitous that these should be cancelled.

XII. David Deuchar, sometimes called the Scottish Worlidge, who has etched many prints after Ostade and the Dutch masters, published a set of etchings by himself, with the following printed 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 in the town house at Basle, to which is prefixed descriptions of each plate in French and English, with the scripture text from which the designs were taken. Edinburgh, MDCCLXXXVIII.” Before this most inaccurate title are two engraved leaves, on one of which is Deuchar’s portrait, in a medallion, supported by Adam and Eve holding the forbidden fruit. Over the medallion, the three Fates, the whole within an arch before a pediment. On each side, a plain column, supporting a pyramid, &c. On the other leaf a copy of the engraved title to M. de Mechel’s work with the substitution of Deuchar’s name. After the printed title is a portrait, as may be supposed, of Holbein, within a border containing six ovals of various subjects, and a short preface or account of that artist, but accompanied with some very inaccurate statements. The subjects are inclosed, like Hollar’s, within four different borders, separately engraved, three of them borrowed, with a slight variation in one, from Diepenbeke, the fourth being probably Deuchar’s invention. The etchings of the Dance of Death are forty-six in number, accompanied with De Mechel’s description and English translation. At the end is the emblematical print of mortality, but not described, with the dagger sheath, copied from De Mechel. Thirty of these etchings are immediately copied from Hollar, No. X. having the distance altered. The rest are taken from the spurious wood copies of the originals by

with variation in No. XVIII.; and in No. XXXIX. and XLIII. Deuchar has introduced winged hour-glasses. These etchings are very inferior to those by Hollar. The head of Eve in No. III. resembles that of a periwigged Frenchman of the time of Louis XIV. but many of the subjects are very superior to others, and intitled to much commendation.

XIII. The last in this list is “Der Todtentanz ein gedicht von Ludwig Bechstein mit 48 kupfern in treuen Conturen nach H. Holbein. Leipzig. 1831,” 12mo.; or, “Death’s Dance, a poem by Ludwig Bechstein, with forty-eight engravings in faithful outlines from H. Holbein.” These very elegant etchings are by Frenzel, inspector of the gallery of engravings of the King of Saxony at Dresden. The poem, which is an epic one, relates entirely to the power of Death over mankind.

It is necessary to mention that the artist who made the designs for the Lyons Dance of Death is not altogether original with respect to a few of them. Thus, in the subject of Adam digging and Eve spinning, he has partly copied an ancient wood engraving that occurs in some of the Horæ printed by Francis Regnault at Paris. In the subject of the Queen, and on that of the Duke and Duchess, he has made some use of those of Death and the Fool, and Death and the Hermit, in the old Dance at Basle. On the other hand, he has been imitated, 1. in “La Periere Theatre des bons engins. 1561.” 24mo. where the rich man bribing the judge is introduced at fo. 66. 2. The figure of the Swiss gentleman in “Recueil de la diversité des habits.” Paris, 1567. 12mo. is copied from the last print in the Lyons book. 3. From the same print the Death’s head has been introduced in an old wood engraving, that will be more particularly described hereafter. 4. Brebiette, in a small etching on copper, has copied the Lyons plowman. 5. Mr. Dance, in his painting of Garrick, has evidently made use of the gentleman who lifts up his sword against Death. The copies of the portrait of Francis I. have been already noticed.

CHAPTER IX

Further examination of Holbein’s title. – Borbonius. – Biographical notice of Holbein. – Painting of a Dance of Death at Whitehall by him.

It may be necessary in the next place to make some further enquiry respecting the connection that Holbein is supposed to have had at any time with the subject of the Dance of Death.

The numerous errors that have been fallen into in making Holbein a participator in any manner whatever with the old Basle Macaber Dance, have been already noticed, and are indeed not worth the trouble of refuting. It is wholly improbable that he would interfere with so rude a piece of art; nor has his name been recorded among the artists who are known to have retouched or repaired it. The Macaber Dance at Basle, or any where else, is, therefore, with respect to Holbein, to be altogether laid aside; and if the argument before deduced from the important dedication to the edition of the justly celebrated wood-cuts published at Lyons in 1538 be of any value, his claim to their invention, at least to those in the first edition, must also be rejected.124 There is indeed but very slight evidence, and none contemporary, that he painted any Dance of Death at Basle. The indefinite statements of Bishop Burnet and M. Patin, together with those of the numerous and careless travellers who have followed blind leaders, and too often copied each other without the means or inclination of obtaining correct information, are deserving of very little attention. The circumstance of Holbein’s having painted a Dance of Peasants somewhere in the above city, in conjunction with the usual mistake of ascribing to him the old Macaber Dance, seems to have occasioned the above erroneous statements as to a Dance of Death by his pencil. It is hardly possible that Zuinger, almost a contemporary, when describing the Dance of Peasants and other paintings by Holbein at Basle would have omitted the mention of any Dance of Death:125 but even admitting the former existence of such a painting, it would not constitute him the inventor of the designs in the Lyons work. He might have imitated or copied those designs, or the wood-cuts themselves, or perhaps have painted subjects that were different from either.

We are now to take into consideration some very clear and important evidence that Holbein actually did paint a Dance of Death. This is to be found in the Nugæ of Borbonius in the following verses:

De morte picta à Hanso pictore nobili.Dum mortis Hansus pictor imaginum exprimit,Tanta arte mortem retulit, ut mors vivereVideatur ipsa: et ipse se immortalibusParem Diis fecerit, operis hujus gloria.126

It has been already demonstrated that these lines could not refer to the old painting of the Macaber Dance at the Dominican convent, whilst, from the important dedication to the edition of the wood-cuts first published at Lyons in 1538, it is next to impossible that that work could then have been in Borbonius’s contemplation. It appears from several places in his Nugæ that he was in England in 1535, at which time Holbein drew his portrait in such a manner as to excite his gratitude and admiration in another copy of verses.127 This was probably the chalk drawing still preserved in the fine collection of portraits of the eminent persons in the court of Henry VIII. formerly at Kensington, and thence removed to Buckingham House, and which has been copied in an elegant wood-cut, that first appeared in the edition of the Paidagogeion of Borbonius, Lyons, 1536, and afterward in two editions of his Nugæ. It is inscribed NIC. BORBONIVS VANDOP. ANNO ÆTATIS XXXII. 1535. He returned to Lyons in 1536, and it is known that he was there in 1538, when he probably wrote the complimentary lines in Holbein’s Biblical designs a short time before their publication, either out of friendship to the painter, or at the instance of the Lyons publisher with whom he was certainly connected.

Now if Borbonius, during his residence at Lyons, had been assured that the designs in the wood-cuts of the Dance of Death were the production of Holbein, would not his before-mentioned lines on that subject have been likewise introduced into the Lyons edition of it, or at least into some subsequent editions, in none of which is any mention whatever made of Holbein, although the work was continued even after the death of that artist? The application, therefore, of Borbonius’s lines must be sought for elsewhere; but it is greatly to be regretted that he has not adverted to the place where the painting, as he seems to call it, was made.

Very soon after the calamitous fire at Whitehall in 1697, which consumed nearly the whole of that palace, a person calling himself T. Nieuhoff Piccard, probably belonging to the household of William the Third, and a man who appears to have been an amateur artist, made the etchings in the article IX. already described in p. 130. Copies of them were presented to some of his friends, with manuscript dedications to them. Three of these copies have been seen by the author of this Dissertation, and as the dedications differ from each other, and are of very considerable importance on the present occasion, the following extracts from them are here translated and transcribed:

“To Mynheer Heymans

“Sir, – The costly palace of Whitehall, erected by Cardinal Wolsey, and the residence of King Henry VIII. contains, among other performances of art, a Dance of Death, painted by Holbein in its galleries, which, through an unfortunate conflagration, has been reduced to ashes; and even the little work which he has engraved with his own hand, and which I have copied as near as possible, is so scarce, that it is known only to a few lovers of art. And since the court has thought proper, in consideration of your singular deserts, to cause a dwelling to be built for you at Whitehall, I imagined it would not be disagreeable to you to be made acquainted with the former decorations of that palace. It will not appear strange that the artist should have chosen the above subject for ornamenting the royal walls, if we consider that the founder of the Greek monarchy directed that he should be daily reminded of the admonition, ‘Remember, Philip, that thou art a man.’ In like manner did Holbein with his pencil give tongues to these walls to impress not only the king and his court, but every one who viewed them with the same reflection.”

He then proceeds to describe each of the subjects, and concludes with some moral observations.

In another copy of these etchings the dedication is to

“The high, noble, and wellborn Lord William Benting, Lord of Rhoon, Pendreght, &c.”

“Sir, – In the course of my constant love and pursuit of works of art, it has been my good fortune to meet with that scarce little work of Hans Holbein neatly engraved on wood, and which he himself had painted as large as life in fresco on the walls of Whitehall. In the copy which I presume to lay before you, as being born in the same palace, I have followed the original as nearly as possible, and considering the partiality which every one has for the place of his birth, a description of what is remarkable and curious therein and now no longer existing on account of its destruction by a fatal fire, must needs prove acceptable, as no other remains whatever have been left of that once so famous court of King Henry VIII. built by Cardinal Wolsey, than your own dwelling.”

He then repeats the story of Philip of Macedon, and the account of the subjects of his etchings.

At the end of this dedication there is a fragment of another, the beginning of which is lost. The following passages only in it are worthy of notice. “The residence of King William.” “I flatter myself with a familiar acquaintance with Death, since I have already lived long enough to seem to be buried alive, &c.” In other respects, the same, in substance, as the preceding.

It is almost needless to advert to M. Nieuhoff Piccard’s mistake in asserting that Holbein made the engravings which he copied; but it would have been of some importance if, instead of his pious ejaculations, he had described all the subjects that Holbein painted on the walls of the galleries at Whitehall. He must have used some edition of the wood-cuts posterior to that of 1545, which did not contain the subjects of the German soldier, the fool, and the blind man, all of which he has introduced. It is possible, however, that he has given us all the subjects that were then remaining, the rest having become decayed or obliterated from dampness and neglect, and even those which then existed would soon afterwards perish when the remains of the old palace were removed. His copies are by no means faithful, and seem to be rather the production of an amateur than of a regular artist. For his greater convenience, he appears to have preferred using the wood engravings instead of the paintings; and it is greatly to be regretted that we have no better or further account of them, especially of the time at which they were executed. The lives of Holbein that we possess are uniformly defective in chronological arrangement. There seems to be a doubt whether the Earl of Arundel recommended him to visit England; but certain it is that in the year 1526 he came to London with a letter of that date addressed by Erasmus to Sir Thomas More, accompanied with his portrait, with which More was so well satisfied that he retained him at his house at Chelsea upwards of two years, until Henry VIII. from admiration of his works, appointed him his painter, with apartments at Whitehall. In 1529 he visited Basle, but returned to England in 1530. In 1535 he drew the portrait of his friend Nicholas Bourbon or Borbonius at London, probably the before-mentioned crayon drawing at Buckingham House, or some duplicate of it. In 1538 he painted the portrait of Sir Richard Southwell, a privy counsellor to Henry VIII. which was afterwards in the gallery of the Grand Duke of Tuscany.128 About this time the magistrates of the city of Basle settled an annuity on him, but conditionally that he should return in two years to his native place and family, with which terms he certainly did not comply, preferring to remain in England. In the last-mentioned year he was sent by the king into Burgundy to paint the portrait of the Duchess of Milan, and in 1539 to Germany to paint that of Anne of Cleves. In some household accounts of Henry VIII. there are payments to him in 1538, 1539, 1540, and 1541, on account of his salary, which appears to have been thirty pounds per annum.129 From this time little more is recorded of him till 1553, when he painted Queen Mary’s portrait, and shortly afterwards died of the plague in London in 1554.

In the absence of positive evidence it may surely be allowed to substitute probable conjecture; and as it cannot be clearly proved that Holbein painted a Dance of Death at Basle, may not the before-mentioned verses of Borbonius refer to his painting at Whitehall, and which the poet must himself have seen? It is no objection that Borbonius remained a year only in England, when his portrait was painted by his friend Holbein in 1535, or that the verses did not make their appearance till 1538, for they seem rather to fix the date of the painting, if really belonging to it, between those years; and it is not unreasonable to suppose that Borbonius would hold some intercourse with the painter, even after leaving England, as is indeed apparent from other compliments bestowed on him in his Nugæ, the contents of which are by no means chronologically arranged, and many of the poems known to have been written long before their publication. The lines in question might have been written any where, and at any time, and this may be very safely stated until the real time in which the Whitehall painting was made shall be ascertained.

In one of Vanderdort’s manuscript catalogues of the pictures and rarities transported from St. James’s to Whitehall, and placed there in the newly erected cabinet room of Charles I. and in which several works by Holbein are mentioned, there is the following article: “A little piece where Death with a green garland about his head, stretching both his arms to apprehend a Pilate in the habit of one of the spiritual Prince Electors of Germany. Copied by Isaac Oliver from Holbein.”130 There cannot be a doubt that this refers to the subject of the Elector, as painted by Holbein in the Dance of Death at Whitehall, proving at the same time the identity of the painting with the wood-cuts, whatever may be the inference.

Sandrart, after noticing a remarkable portrait of Henry VIII. at Whitehall, states, that “there yet remains in that palace another work by Holbein that constitutes him the Apelles of the time.”131 This is certainly very like an allusion to a Dance of Death.

It is by no means improbable that Mathew Prior may have alluded to Holbein’s painting at Whitehall, as it is not likely that he would be acquainted with any other.

Our term of life depends not on our deed,Before our birth our funeral was decreed,Nor aw’d by foresight, nor misled by chance,Imperious death directs the ebon lance,Peoples great Henry’s tombs, and leads up Holbein’s Dance.Ode to the Memory of George Villiers.

CHAPTER X

Other Dances of Death

Having thus disposed of the two most ancient and important works on the subject in question, others of a similar nature, but with designs altogether different, and introduced into various books, remain to be noticed, and such are the following:

I. “Les loups ravissans fait et composé par maistre Robert Gobin prestre, maistre es ars licencie en decret, doyen de crestienté de Laigny sur Marne au dyocese de Paris, advocat en court d’eglise. Imprimé pour Anthoine Verard a Paris, 4to.” without date, but about 1500. This is a very bitter satire, in the form of a dream, against the clergy in general, but more particularly against Popes John XXII. and Boniface VIII. A wolf, in a lecture to his children, instructs them in every kind of vice and wickedness, but is opposed, and his doctrines refuted, by an allegorical personage called Holy Doctrine. In a second vision Death appears to the author, accompanied by Fate, War, Famine, and Mortality. All classes of society are formed into a Dance, as the author chooses to call it, and the work is accompanied with twenty-one very singular engravings on wood, executed in a style perhaps nowhere else to be met with. The designs are the same as those in the second Dance of the Horæ, printed by Higman for Vostre, No. I. page 61.