Dance of Death, The Duchess

Dance of Death, The Duchess

These images represent a Duchess on her bed being dragged out by a skeleton while another skeleton plays the violin. Thus, a feminine character (Duchess) is being taken by two skeletons, a clearly feminine one (with long hair) and a masculine or neutral one. This is an opposite example of images that reflect a couple and only one death or destiny figure.

Schlotthauer, Joseph (1789-1869) (Image 1)
Douce, Francis (1757-1834), Bonner, George Wilmot (1796-1836) and Byfield, John (1788-1841) (Image 2)
Birckmann, Arnold (c. 1500-1542) (Image 3)
Bechstein, Ludwig (1801-1860) (Image 4)
Kieser, Eberhard (1583-1631) (Image 5)

Image 1:
Hans Holbein's Todtentanz: in 53 getreu nach den Holzschnitten lithographirten Blättern (Hans Holbein's Dance of Death: in 53 sheets faithfully lithographed from the woodcuts) by Holbein, Hans ed. Schlotthauer, Joseph. München: Schlotthauer, (1832). Illustration 36. Die Fürstin (the Duchess), p. 122. Found in Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf, Germany. URN: urn:nbn:de:hbz:061:1-71624
http://digital.ub.uni-duesseldorf.de/ihd/content/pageview/2642549

Archived in:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200904201902/http://digital.ub.uni-duesseldorf.de/ihd/content/pageview/2642549

Also found on the "The Dance of Death" webpage:
http://www.dodedans.com/Exhibit/Image.php?lang=e&navn=schlotthauer-36

Archived in:
https://web.archive.org/web/20170728120145/http://www.dodedans.com/Exhibit/Image.php?lang=e&navn=schlotthauer-36

Image 2:
The Dance of Death, published by Douce (1833). Woodcutters were Bonner and Byfield. Found in The Dance of Death by Gilles Corrozet and Jean de Vauzelles (2007). Image XXXVI. The Duchess (iiii. Reg. i.). In Project Gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21790/21790-h/21790-h.htm

Archived in:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200617165113/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21790/21790-h/21790-h.htm

Also found on the "The Dance of Death" webpage:
http://www.dodedans.com/Exhibit/Image.php?lang=e&navn=douce-36

Archived in:
https://web.archive.org/web/20180930054713/http://www.dodedans.com/Exhibit/Image.php?lang=e&navn=douce-36

Image 3:
Imagines mortis, by Vauzelles, Jean de (1555). Birckmann, Arnold printer. Köln, Germany. In Les Bibliothèques Virtuelles Humanistes http://www.bvh.univ-tours.fr/Consult/index.asp?numfiche=247 f. C4v, Illustration 36, the Duchess.
http://www.bvh.univ-tours.fr/Consult/consult.asp?numtable=B372615206%5F8768&numfiche=247&mode=1&ecran=0&index=48

Archived in:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200904202629/http://www.bvh.univ-tours.fr/Consult/consult.asp?numtable=B372615206_8768&numfiche=247&mode=1&ecran=0&index=48

Also found on the "The Dance of Death" webpage:
http://www.dodedans.com/Exhibit/Image.php?lang=e&navn=birckmann-36

Archived in:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200112145956/http://www.dodedans.com/Exhibit/Image.php?lang=e&navn=birckmann-36

Image 4:
Der Todtentanz: Ein Gedicht (The dance of death: a poem) by Bechstein, Ludwig. Illustrator Holbein, Hans. Leipzig: Leo (1831). Illustration 36. Die Gräfin (the Duchess), p. 235. Found in Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf, Germany. URN: urn:nbn:de:hbz:061:1-58471
http://digital.ub.uni-duesseldorf.de/ihd/content/pageview/2422127

Archived in:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200904203333/http://digital.ub.uni-duesseldorf.de/ihd/content/pageview/2422127

Also found on the "The Dance of Death" webpage:
http://www.dodedans.com/Exhibit/Image.php?lang=e&navn=bechstein-36

Archived in:
https://web.archive.org/web/20170728112610/http://www.dodedans.com/Exhibit/Image.php?lang=e&navn=bechstein-36

Image 5:
Todten Dantz durch alle Stände und Geschlecht der Menschen, etc. [Engravings after Holbein by Eberhard Kieser, with Caspar Scheidt's verses in German.] (Dance of Death by all classes and gender of people, etc.), by Kieser, Eberhard (1617). Die Gräfin, Section 7.
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=PUlVEecEcmQC&pg=PP7&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false

Archived in:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200904162543if_/https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=PUlVEecEcmQC&pg=PP7&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false

Also found on the "The Dance of Death" webpage:
http://www.dodedans.com/Exhibit/Image.php?lang=e&navn=kieser-36

Archived in:
https://web.archive.org/web/20170728120847/http://www.dodedans.com/Exhibit/Image.php?lang=e&navn=kieser-36

Image 1: 1832
Image 2: 1833
Image 3: 1555
Image 4: 1831
Image 5: 1617

These images are opposite examples of items that reflect two genders and only one death, such as Rosary, by Unknown (1530, c.) and Memento Mori Bead, by Unknown (1825, c.).

Woodcut.