HOLBEIN AND DEATH

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 92, 12 January 1935, Page 4

HOLBEIN AND DEATH

Farcical Woodcut Treatment (Ur Edward C. Sijspsox.) After what I wrote previously upon the mediaeval Dance of Death, we might be found asking ourselves, “Is not art always beautiful?” Without attempting an answer to the question, it is clear that the artists of the Dance of Death had no use for sentiment or romance. Prettiness, charm, decorativeness and preciosity, all the comfortable qualities of art, were thrust aside to make way for an art that.was precise, clear, simple and appealing to a bant age that had no time for armchair illusions. When certain works of . art to-day show propensities for things that are real and vital, we tend to search for hard words and speak of the cult of the ugly. But in the times of which I write it was at least popular. So popular, in fact, as to bo profitable. The loss of life and consequent shortage of labour presented industrial problems to that world almost as difiicult of solution as our present ones. Laws innumerable were passed restricting the conditions of work, preventing the lab- . ourer from moving from place to place, ■ and regulating his wages. Mostly they ; were of little avail, except to increase . the popularity of socialist doctrines . that arose as the result of the unrest. William Morris’s “Dream of John Ball” . presents a vivid picture of the England ■ of Wat Tyler’s rebellion. Here, then, is . at least one important explanation for the popularity of the Dance of Death. . Death is the great leveller. Then, there is distinction neither of riches, ’ rank, nor age. A Best Seller. Publishers then, as now, had a keen eye for a best seller. Anything that treated of the Dance of Death was sure 1 of a large circulation. In the year 1485,. a printer of Paris sent artists to copy the paintings and frescoes of this subject, and the inscriptions that gave them meaning. Using the matter of the paintings in woodcuts, tills printer brought out several editions of a book called "Danse Macabre” which, on account of the illustrations, met with great success. The subject must have been near aud dear to the hearts of the folk who bought the books so readily. In these volumes all society is brought into contact with the skeleton of Death: Pope and Kayser, king and noble, soldier, merchant, labourer. Each in turn dances with this ghoulish partner of his own dead self. Full of atrocious gaiety are these skeletons, playing for the dance their unearthly music for which the unwilling victims have no ear. , Holbein’s Cuts. But above ail others the Dance of Death is bound up with the name of Holbein. The series of woodcuts, 41 in number; have been so frequently reproduced that they are probably the most famous monument of the early woodcutters. In size they are only about three inches high by two wide, but this does not detract from their dignity aud thoughtfulness. Their most marked difference from the innumerable other contemporary woodcuts and pictures of this subject is the way in which the w/ole theme sheds its tragedy and becomes at times almost farcical. Whereas thd'others are stark and gloomy, leaving the figures of the living and the dead unrelieved by any lighter touches, Holbein introduces ;t hundred human details of shrewd observation that give breadth. All classes of society are dealt with, but witli each one Death has a different and an appropriate method of approach. The peasant, clad in poor and ragged garments, his b„air sticking up through the broken crown' of his hat, guides witli bowed shoulders a plough drawn by a team of four rawboned starving horses. His day has begun early, for the sun just rises over a wooded hill where stands a church far away at the end of the long field of furrows. The ploughed field, the peasant and bis team, and the landscape suggested in a few telling lines make up a design of marvellous rhythmic beauty. The peasant looks up to see the grisly figure of Death has come for him. But Death has pity for his hard lot. and before leading him off in the last dance of all. he races alongside the team of horses, stick in hand, urging them ou to finish the task before he- completes the object of his coming. This is one of the fewpictures in tlie whole series iu which no hour glass is seen. Iu almost all of them the hour glass stands unobtrusively on an'adjacent wall, or on a table, in a corner, showing that the sands of time have run out for Death’s victim. So it is to be seen on the long low wall of the burial ground where Death gently leads away the old man Hideous in aspect, with protruding ribs, and hair still patchily adhering to his naked skull. Death once more is merciful. His victim is ripe, bent with age, only able to hobble on a stick. Yet there are protestations on his wrinkled face, which is turned to the hideous partner who tenderly leads him by the hand. Of, respect there was none, for Death foots the measure jauntily, and plays the music of the dance with arch fingers on tlie xylophone slung round his neck. Tlie Abbot is fat and fond of comfort. Reading his breviary beneath a shady tree lie had not noticed tlie hour glass, standing in tlie joint: of a branch. The ugly visitor takes him by surprise, and relentlessly hauls him off at once, first shouldering tlie crosier, and clapping the Abbot’s mitre on his own head in mockery. The nun keeps companv with her lover in her ceil. She kneels in prayer before her altar while the lover sits and waits, whiling away the time by playing on a lute. Her prayers finished, she turns to rise in welcome, but unnoticed at her back Death quietly snuffs the camlies on her altar. Never again was this fertile theme of the Dance of Death touched upon with the same subtle spirit as that of Holbein. Sober and restrained, his pictures arc fearful in their quiet gaiety.