The Burgher Wife is 37 a series of 38

Thanks to Patrick Pollefays for the pictures as well as the following information:

This dance of death, called the Doten dantz mit figuren, begins with four cadavers playing music and three others dancing in front of a house. The next picture shows six putrefying bodies dancing around a dead man, lying in his coffin next to an ossuary. The actual dance of death is made of 38 woodcuts. In the last picture, five bodies get out of their graves; this conclusion, as well as the introduction, recall some medieval supersitions. The artist who engraved the woodcuts is unknown. The printer was probably Heinrich Knoblochter, who left Strasbourg in 1486 and settled down in Heidelberg. He would have printed this dance of death two years later.

We still do not know exactly where this dance of death was created.

To go to Patrick's site on the Danse Macabre, click here

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