Description
Book SynopsisAn invaluable new reproduction of Holbein’s woodcuts of The Dance of Death One of Hans Holbein’s first great triumphs,
The Dance of Death is an incomparable sequence of tiny woodcuts showing the folly of human greed and pride. Each image is packed with drama, wit, and horror, as a skeleton mocks and terrifies everyone from the emperor to a ploughman. Taking full advantage of the new literary culture of the early sixteenth century,
The Dance of Death took an old medieval theme and made it new.
This edition reproduces a complete set from the British Museum, with many details highlighted and examples of other works in this grisly field included. Ulinka Rublack introduces the woodcuts with a remarkable essay on the late medieval
Danse Macabre (the Dance of Death) and the world Holbein lived in.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-s
Trade ReviewThe underlying message of the series is, of course, that Death comes for us all, and if it interrupts the recreations of the wealthy rather more insolently than those of the poor, then let that be a lesson to us... Rublack's commentary is useful and illuminating, pointing out details, providing information about the time Holbein lived in, and even making a plausible case for her own views on Holbein's position on the reformation. -- Nick Lezard * Guardian *
