The Cook

Todt zum Koch: KOmm her Hans Koch du must darvon, Wie bist so feist, du kanst kaum gohn: Hast du schon kocht viel süsser Schleck, Wird dir jetzt sawr, du must hinweg.	Death to The Cook Come here, Hans Cook, you must away. How fat you are, you can hardly walk. Even if you have boiled much sweet candy, it will go sour for you now. You must away.

Der Koch: ICh hab kocht Hüner, Gänß und Fisch, Meim Herren vielmal uber Tisch, Wildbrätt, Pastet und Marziban: O weh meins Bauchs, ich muß darvon.	The Cook. I have cooked many chickens, geese and fish for my master's table several times. Wild-roast, pâté and marcipan. Oh woe, my stomach. I must go away.

Klein-Basel, Cook.
Drawing after Büchel

Holbein, The abbot

If we look at the picture of the cook in Klein-Basel, we see that the picture used to be far less dynamic: Death is standing and talking to a man with a large spoon.

Apparently the mural in Groß-Basel has been "spiffed up" during a renovation, probably by Kluber in 1568, who has looked at Holbein's woodcut of the abbot. Death holds the cook's skewer in the same way as the abbot's staff.

Bleibach: Cook

Fragment of original mural

The picture of the cook in Basel has inspired the dance of death in Bleibach (picture to the left).

At the museum in Basel there's still a fragment of the mural with the cook (picture to the right).

Groß-Basel, Cook.
Etching after Büchel

Groß-Basel, Cook.
Gouache from ca. 1600

If we compare Merian's copperplate (above) with the watercolour Büchel made 100 years later (to the left), there are several differences:

The cook is not spilling water out of his jug, he carries his dagger at the other side of his body, and Death and the cook stands further apart from each other. On Merian's picture one can see Death's leg between the cook's, on Büchel's picture one sees Death's heel.

If we then compare this with the coloured gouaches from ca. 1600 (picture to the right), we can see that Merian is right about the water running out of the jug, so the mural must have been changed in the 100 years separating Merian and Büchel

But concerning the composition with Death's heel between the cook's legs, the gouache confirms that Merian has taken a few artistic liberties and moved the figures far too close to each other.