Dances, Death and Doors

As. Soone. As. Wee. To. Be. Begvnne:

We. Did. Beginne. To. Bee. Vndone.[1]

The poem above comes from a seventeenth-century medallion that served as a reminder for humanity’s shared destination: death. The mystery of what occurs on the other side of the journey has inspired artists over the ages, fuelling an allegorical genre of texts and artworks known as the Danse Macabre or ‘Dance of Death’. This dance is a metaphor for the duality between life and death; however, in some early depictions, it is literally portrayed in a manner comparable to Hans Weiditz’s The Village Dance, Musicians (1532)—with the inclusion of skeletons.

 The moralising content of the Dance of Death is a reason why variations of this art form have manifested at times of great change in society. For instance, prints on the subject first flourished during the mid-to-late fourteenth century, when medieval doctrine about the afterlife was considerably re-evaluated. Prior to the Reformation, early Christians believed souls repented in a liminal space called ‘purgatory’ while awaiting the ‘last judgement’. The rejection of purgatory during the Protestant Reformation meant that for a large portion of the European population, the living were further distanced from the dead, and the barrier between realms hardened from a permeable veil to a more substantial gate or door. The synthesis of the two are symbolised in my hand-printed Door (2019) in the exhibition.

[1] Nigel Llewellyn, The Art of Death: Visual Culture in the English Death Ritual c.1500–c.1800 (London: Reaktion Books, 1991), 11.

Historically, the distance between the realms of the living and the dead was supplemented by visualising cadavers and skeletons interacting with people going about their daily activities. Without the safety net of purgatory and repentance in the afterlife, imagery of the Death Dance also sharpened a believer’s mind toward the importance of spiritual and moral preparation in life. For instance, within the borders of a ‘Book of Hours’ (1510), skeletons with shovels are seen leading religious figureheads and monks willingly to their graves. The message was clear: that moral citizens are ready for their eternal fate. This theme persisted well into the eighteenth century, as in German printmaker Johann Rudolf Schellenberg’s series of etchings focused on the doomed fate of those citizens less prepared for Death’s impartial strike.  In one of these, Death is seen casting a net over to unsuspecting lovers hiding in a bush. Presumably such dalliance between two lovers was not uncommon in the bush around a village dance judging from Weiditz’s The Village Dance, Musicians (1532), however Weiditz doesn’t invite death to disrupt the scene this time.  

Despite the variations of the Dance of Death represented in this exhibition, the warning seems consistent throughout: The present may be spent contemplating how life unravels toward death, the foreseeable future.

(Ali Bezer Aug. 2019)