The Physician

Todt zum Doctor: HErr Doctor b'schawt die Anatomey An mir, ob sie recht g'machet sey: Dann du hast manchen auch hing'richt, Der eben gleich, wie ich jetzt sicht.	Death to The Physician Mr. Physician, inspect the anatomy on me, whether it's made right. Because you have also executed many, who now look exactly like I.

Der Doctor: ICh hab mit meinem Wasser bschawen Geholffen beyde Mann und Frawen: Wer b'schawt mir nun das Wasser myn, Ich muß jetzt mit dem Todt dahin.	The Physician. I have with my urine-inspecting(1) helped both men and women. Who inspects my water now? I must now [go] away with Death.

Kleinbasel, Physician

Vesalius, 1543

This picture is the only one where Death is portrayed as a skeleton. The skeleton is relatively correctly rendered, which proves that it is a more recent addition. People in the Middle Ages simply didn't have that kind of anatomical knowledge (for an example, see Holbein's blunder).

If we look at the corresponding picture in Kleinbasel (to the left), Death is the same cadaver as the one that fetches everybody else in the dance. The text in Kleinbasel doesn't mention anything about "inspecting the anatomy".

When Kluber renovated the mural in 1568, it was 25 years since Vesalius had published his famous anatomy book De Humani Corporis Fabrica in Basel (picture to the right). It's apparent that Kluber has copied the image from this book.

But one thing is still not "made right in the anatomy". In spite of countless restorations and improvements, and in spite of Death being transformed from an emaciated cadaver to a skeleton, Death's right hand (the one that grabs the physician) is still a left hand — in both Klein- and Groß-Basel.

In Großbasel (above) Death has stolen the holster for the urine glass, while the physician has dropped the glass, which lies in the right side of the picture.

At the museum in Basel there's still a fragment of this painting (picture to the right).

Footnotes: (1)

Physician med urine glass from the dance of death in Lübeck.

urine-inspecting. . .: the examination of the urine was an indispensable part of the medical art in the Middle Ages. See the picture to the right.