dance of death

n (Art Terms) a pictorial, literary, or musical representation, current esp in the Middle Ages, of a dance in which living people, in order of social precedence, are led off to their graves, by a personification of death. Also called (French): danse macabre

Dance of death

1. Originated in the Middle Ages when it was believed that the dead rose up at night to dance over their graves, and lured people into the dance and then death. Also known as the “danse macabre.”2. Also called “danse macabre,” an allegorical concept of the power of death over all mankind, even the most powerful. Probably inspired by the carnage of the Black Death 1346–52 and the Hundred Years’ War 1337–1453.

Thesaurus

Noun

dance of death - a medieval dance in which a skeleton representing death leads a procession of others to the gravedanse macabreceremonial dance, ritual dance, ritual dancing - a dance that is part of a religious ritual

dance of death

Death, Dance of,

danse macabre

(däns məkä`brə, –bər, dăns), originally a 14th-century morality poem. The poem was a dialogue between Death and representatives of all classes from the Pope down. By the 15th cent., pictorial representation with verses illustrating the pictures became common. The dance, in which Death as a skeleton or a corpse led his victims, was painted on walls of churchyards and cemeteries. The earliest known fully articulated example of the Dance of Death was a series of mural paintings (1424–25) in the cloisters of the Church of the Holy Innocents, Paris. The paintings were destroyed in 1669. In 1485, Guyot Marchand published a set of 17 woodcuts, with verses appended, based on the Paris murals; the set went through many editions and established its own genre. The best-known representations of the Dance of Death are the drawings of Holbein, the younger. Goethe wrote a ballad on the theme, Der Todtentanz, and in music Saint-Saëns used it in Danse macabre.

Bibliography

See facsimile of G. Marchand's Dance of Death (1945); H. Holbein, Dance of Death (1538, new ed. 1972); study by L. P. Kurtz (1934).

dance of death:

see Death, Dance ofDeath, Dance of,
or danse macabre
, originally a 14th-century morality poem. The poem was a dialogue between Death and representatives of all classes from the Pope down. By the 15th cent., pictorial representation with verses illustrating the pictures became common.
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Dance of Death

Holbein woodcut, one of many medieval examples of the death motif. [Eur. Culture: Bishop, 363-367]See: Death

dance of death

dance of death

Dance of death

dance of death

Death, Dance of,

danse macabre

Bibliography

dance of death:

Dance of Death

dance of death

Synonyms for dance of death

noun a medieval dance in which a skeleton representing death leads a procession of others to the grave

Synonyms

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