Danse Macabre Images.
Page 01
Camille
Saint Saens: Danse Macabre Opus 40
Click "PLAY" if you want to listen to the music.
|
Danse Macabre /
Henri Cazalis
Zigger-zigger-zig how they frisk and toss
The lady they say is of noble race
Zigger-zigger-zig hand in hand a-dancing
But hush! all at once their hands let go.
Danse Macabre / Henri Cazalis (Français ) Zig et zig et zag, la mort en cadence
|
|
Please
click here
to go to the
next page.
There are several hundreds images on the next
pages.
-------------------------------------
--------------------------------------
Please
click here
to go to the
next page.
There are several hundreds images on the next
pages.
Donation
The site is free to
use and browse, however
if you feel that the site is a valuable
resource, then please consider donating.
We welcome a donation, no matter how small.
To donate securely through PAYPAL,
click here.
Danse Macabre and The Black Death
Dance of Death, also variously called Danse Macabre (French), Danza Macabra
(Italian) or Totentanz
(German), is a late-medieval allegory on the universality of death - no matter
one's station in
life, the dance of death unites all. La Danse Macabre consists of the
personified death leading a
row of dancing figures from all walks of life to the grave—typically with an
emperor, king,
youngster, beautiful female, all skeletal. They were produced to remind people
of how fragile their
lives were and how vain the glories of earthly life were. Its origins are
postulated from
illustrated sermon texts; the earliest artistic examples are in a cemetery in
Paris from 1424.
The deathly horrors of the 14th Century—such as recurring famines, the Hundred
Years War in France
and, most of all, the Black Death, were culturally digested throughout Europe.
The omnipresent
possibility of sudden and painful death increased the religious desire for
penitence, but it also
evoked a hysterical desire for amusement while still possible, a last dance as a
cold comfort. The
danse macabre combines both desires: similar to the
popular mediaeval mystery plays, the dance-
with-death allegory was originally a didactic play to remind people of the
inevitability of death
and to advise them strongly to be prepared all times for death.
The earliest examples of such plays, which consisted of short dialogs between
Death and each of its
victims, can be found in the direct aftermath of the Black Death in Germany,
where it was known as
the Totentanz, but also in Spain as la Danza de la Muerte. The French term danse
macabre most
likely derives from Latin Chorea Machabæorum, literally "dance of the Maccabees".
2 Maccabees, a
deuterocanonical book of the Bible in which the grim
martyrdom of a mother and her seven sons is
described, was a well-known mediaeval subject. It is possible that the Maccabean
Martyrs were
commemorated in some early French plays or that people just associated the
book’s vivid
descriptions of the martyrdom with the interaction between Death and its prey.
Both the play and
the evolving paintings were ostensive penitential sermons which even illiterate
people (who were
the overwhelming majority) could understand.
Furthermore, church frescoes dealing with death had a long tradition and were
widespread, e.g. the
legend of the three men and the three dead: On a ride three young gentlemen meet
the skeletal
remains of three of their ancestors who warn them: Quod fuimus, estis; quod
sumus, vos eritis (What
we were, you are; what we are, you will be). Numerous if often simple fresco
versions of that
legend from the 13th century onwards have survived (for instance in the hospital
church of Wismar).
Since they were showing pictorial sequences of men and skeletons covered with
shrouds those
paintings can be regarded as cultural precursors of the new genre.
A danse macabre painting normally shows a round dance headed by Death. From the
highest ranks of
the mediaeval hierarchy (usually pope and emperor) descending to its lowest
(beggar, peasant and
child) each mortal’s hand is taken by a skeleton or an extremely decayed body.
The famous Totentanz
in Lübeck’s Marienkirche (destroyed by an Allied bomb raid in WW II) presented
Death very lively
and agile, making the impression that the skeletons were actually dancing,
whereas their dancing
partners looked clumsy and passive. The apparent class distinction in almost all
of these paintings
is completely neutralized by Death as the ultimate equalizer, so that a
sociocritical element is
subtly inherent to the whole genre: The Totentanz of Metzin for instance shows
how a pope crowned
with his tiara is being led into hell by the dancing Death.
The Black Death, or the Black Plague, was one of the deadliest pandemics in
human history, widely
thought to have been caused by a bacterium named Yersinia pestis (Bubonic
plague), but recently
attributed by some to other diseases.
The pandemic is thought to have begun in Central Asia or India and spread to
Europe during the
1340s. The total number of deaths worldwide is estimated at 75 million people;
approximately 25-50
million of which occurred in Europe. The Black Death is estimated to have killed
30% to 60% of
Europe's population. It may have reduced the world's population from an
estimated 450 million to
between 350 and 375 million in 1400.
Medieval people called the 14th century catastrophe either the "Great
Pestilence" or the "Great
Plague". Writers contemporary to the plague referred to the event as the "Great
Mortality".
The term "Black Death" was introduced for the first time in 1833. It has been
popularly thought
that the name came from a striking late-stage sign of the disease, in which the
sufferer's skin
would blacken due to subepidermal hemorrhages (purpura), and the extremities
would darken with
gangrene (acral necrosis). However, the term is more likely to refer to black in
the sense of glum,
lugubrious or dreadful.
The Black Death was, according to chronicles, characterized by buboes (swellings
in lymph nodes),
like the late 19th century Asian Bubonic plague. Scientists and historians at
the beginning of the
20th century assumed that the Black Death was an outbreak of the same disease,
caused by the
bacterium Yersinia pestis and spread by fleas with the help of animals like the
black rat (Rattus
rattus). However, this view has recently been questioned
by some scientists and historians. New
research suggests Black Death is lying dormant.
An interesting hypothesis about the epidemiology—the appearance, spread and
especially
disappearance—of plague from Europe is that the flea-bearing rodent reservoir of
disease was
eventually succeeded by another species. The black rat (Rattus rattus) was
originally introduced
from Asia to Europe by trade, but was subsequently displaced and succeeded
throughout Europe by the
bigger brown rat (Rattus norvegicus). The brown rat was not as prone to transmit
the germ-bearing
fleas to humans in large die-offs due to a different rat ecology. The dynamic
complexities of rat
ecology, herd immunity in that reservoir, interaction with human ecology,
secondary transmission
routes between humans with or without fleas, human herd immunity and changes in
each might explain
the eruption, dissemination, and re-eruptions of plague that continued for
centuries until its
(even more) unexplained disappearance.
The classic sign of bubonic plague was the appearance of buboes in the groin,
the neck and armpits,
which oozed pus and bled. Most victims died within four to seven days after
infection. When the
plague reached Europe, it first struck port cities and then followed the trade
routes, both by sea
and land.
The bubonic plague was the most commonly seen form during the Black Death, with
a mortality rate of
thirty to seventy-five percent and symptoms including fever of 38 - 41 °C
(101-105 °F), headaches,
painful aching joints, nausea and vomiting, and a general feeling of malaise. Of
those who
contracted the bubonic plague, 4 out of 5 died within eight days. Pneumonic
plague was the second
most commonly seen form during the Black Death, with a mortality rate of ninety
to ninety-five
percent. Symptoms included fever, cough and blood-tinged sputum. As the disease
progressed, sputum
became free flowing and bright red. Septicaemic plague was the least common of
the three forms,
with a mortality rate close to one hundred percent. Symptoms were high fevers
and purple skin
patches.
The governments of Europe had no apparent response to the crisis because no one
knew its cause or
how it spread. In 1348, the plague spread so rapidly that before any physicians
or government
authorities had time to reflect upon its origins, about a third of the European
population had
already perished. In crowded cities, it was not uncommon for as much as fifty
percent of the
population to die. Europeans living in isolated areas suffered less, and
monasteries and priests
were especially hard hit since they cared for the Black Death's victims. Because
fourteenth century
healers were at a loss to explain the cause, Europeans turned to astrological
forces, earthquakes,
and the poisoning of wells by Jews as possible reasons for the plague's
emergence. No one in the
fourteenth century considered rat control a way to ward off the plague, and
people began to believe
only God's anger could produce such horrific displays. There were many attacks
against Jewish
communities. In August of 1349, the Jewish communities of Mainz and Cologne were
exterminated. In
February of that same year, Christians murdered two thousand Jews in
Strasbourg.Where government
authorities were concerned, most monarchs instituted measures that prohibited
exports of
foodstuffs, condemned black market speculators, set price controls on grain, and
outlawed large-
scale fishing. At best, they proved mostly unenforceable, and at worst they
contributed to a
continent-wide downward spiral. The hardest hit lands, like England, were unable
to buy grain
abroad: from France because of the prohibition, and from most of the rest of the
grain producers
because of crop failures from shortage of labour. Any grain that could be
shipped was eventually
taken by pirates or looters to be sold on the black market. Meanwhile, many of
the largest
countries, most notably England and Scotland, had been at war, using up much of
their treasury and
exacerbating inflation. In 1337, on the eve of the first wave of the Black
Death, England and
France went to war in what would become known as the Hundred Years' War.
Malnutrition, poverty,
disease and hunger, coupled with war, growing inflation and other economic
concerns made Europe in
the mid-fourteenth century ripe for tragedy.
The plague did more than just devastate the medieval population; it caused a
substantial change in
economy and society in all areas of the world. Economic historians like Fernand
Braudel have
concluded that Black Death exacerbated a recession in the European economy that
had been under way
since the beginning of the century. As a consequence, social and economic change
greatly
accelerated during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The church's power
was weakened, and in
some cases, the social roles it had played were taken over by secular groups.
Also the plague led
to peasant uprisings in many parts of Europe, such as France (the Jacquerie
rebellion), Italy (the
Ciompi rebellion, which swept the city of Florence), and
in England (the English Peasant Revolt).
Europe had been overpopulated before the plague, and a reduction of 30% to 50%
of the population
could have resulted in higher wages and more available land and food for
peasants because of less
competition for resources. However, for reasons that are still debated,
population levels declined
after the Black Death's first outbreak until around 1420 and did not begin to
rise again until
1470, so the initial Black Death event on its own does not entirely provide a
satisfactory
explanation to this extended period of decline in prosperity.
Differences in cultural and lifestyle practices between Jews and Christians led
to persecution.
Jews were charged by some with having provoked the plague. Because Jews had a
religious obligation
to be ritually clean, they did not use water from public wells. And so as
previously mentioned,
Jews were suspected of causing the plague by deliberately poisoning wells.
Typically, comparatively
fewer Jews died from the Black Death, in part due to rabbinical laws that
promoted habits that were
generally cleaner than that of a typical medieval villager. Jews were also
socially isolated, often
living in Jewish ghettos. Because isolated people were less likely to be
infected, there were
differences in mortality rates between Jews and non-Jews and this led to raised
suspicions in
people who had no concept of bacterial transmission.
Christian mobs attacked Jewish settlements across Europe; by 1351, sixty major
and 150 smaller
Jewish communities had been destroyed, and more than 350 separate massacres had
occurred. This
persecution reflected more than ethnic hatred. In many places, attacking Jews
was a way to
criticize the monarchs who protected them (Jews were under the protection of the
king, and often
called the "royal treasure"), and monarchic fiscal policies, which were often
administered by Jews.
An important legacy of the Black Death was to cause the eastward movement of
what was left of north
European Jewry to Poland and Russia, where it remained until the twentieth
century.
Flagellants practiced self-flogging (whipping of oneself) to atone for sins. The
movement became
popular after general disillusionment with the church's reaction to the Black
Death. The Black
Death led to cynicism toward religious officials who could not keep their
promises of curing plague
victims and banishing the disease. No one, the Church included, was able to cure
or accurately
explain the reasons for the plague outbreaks. One theory of transmission was
that it spread through
air, and was referred to as miasma, or 'bad air'. This increased doubt in the
clergy's abilities.
Extreme alienation with the Church culminated in either support for different
religious groups such
as the flagellants, which from their late 13th century beginnings grew
tremendously during the
opening years of the Black Death, and later to a pursuit of pleasure and
hedonism. It was a common
belief at the time that the plague was due to God's wrath, caused by the sins of
mankind; In
response, the flagellants travelled from town to town, whipping themselves in an
effort to mimic
the sufferings of Jesus prior to his crucifixion. Originating in Germany,
several miraculous tales
emerged from their efforts, such as a child being revived from the dead, and a
talking cow. These
stories further fuelled the belief that the flagellants were more effective than
church leaders. It
may have been that the flagellant's later involvement in hedonism was an effort
to accelerate or
absorb God's wrath, to shorten the time with which others suffered. More likely,
the focus of
attention and popularity of their cause contributed to a sense that the world
itself was ending,
and that their individual actions were of no consequence.
Sadly, the flagellants may have more likely contributed to the actual spreading
of the disease,
rather than its cure. Presumably, there were towns that the flagellants visited
or passed through
which were largely unaffected by the plague until that point, only to be
infected by fleas carried
either by the flagellant's followers, or the flagellants themselves. This is a
common ironic theme
in how individuals at the time dealt with the plague - that in nearly all cases,
the methods
employed to defend against the plague encouraged its spread.
The Black Death hit the monasteries very hard because of their proximity with
the sick, who sought
refuge there, so that there was a severe shortage of clergy after the epidemic
cycle. This resulted
in a mass influx of hastily-trained and inexperienced clergy members, many of
whom knew little of
the discipline and rigor of the veterans they replaced. This led to abuses by
the clergy in years
afterwards and a further deterioration of the position of the Church in the eyes
of the people.
Inspired by Black Death, Danse Macabre is an allegory on the universality of
death and a common
painting motif in late-medieval periods.
After 1350, European culture in general turned very morbid. The general mood was
one of pessimism,
and contemporary art turned dark with representations of death.
In retrospect, it seemed like everything the people thought to do at the time
simply made the
problem worse. For example, since many equated the plague with God's wrath
against sin, and that
cats were often considered in league with the Devil, cats were killed en masse.
Had this bias
toward cats not existed, local rodent populations could have been kept down,
lessening the spread
of plague-infected fleas from host to host.
Please
click here
to go to the next page.
There are several hundreds images on the next
pages.
Copyright © Uzi Dornai, All Rights Reserved.
