Anonymous: Danse Macabre (1770?)

(Wellcome Library, London, UK)

A painting by an unknown German artist. A dance macabre "the Dance of Death" is a medieval allegory on the universality of death: no matter one's station in life, the Dance Macabre unites all. Along the edges of this painting twelve scenes can be seen in which various people: pope, emperor, king, lawyer, peasant, etc., are depicted with death - demonstrating that nobody however exalted in this life, can escape death. In the center nine women are dancing with the dead around a grave. Also depicted is the crucifixion, God in the Heavens, Adam and Eve and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, sinners burning in hel. Painting from the 1770s.