irckmann's woodcuts were published in 1555.
To the left is the front page from a later issue, which
sports Birckmann's logo: a fat hen.
The fat hen was an allusion to his address in Cologne, where he lived on a street called zo vetterhennen.
Since 1816 the name of the street has been Unter Fettenhennen).
The artist / woodcarver is unknown, but four of the woodcuts
(abbess, canon,
judge and old woman)
bear a cutter's mark in the form of a capital, italic A. Some think this mark belongs to Antonius Sylvius,
while others point at Arnaud Nicolai. The German editions had 4-lined poems by Caspar Scheit from Worms.
The book was reprinted by Birckmann and his heirs in 1555 (latin),
1556, 1557, 1558, 1560, 1566, 1567, 1572, 1573,
1574, 1655 and 1657.
Maybe it's the great number of re-issues
that has given the book so much influence.
The later so popular artists, Kieser, Valvasor,
Hollar and Deuchar have in very high degree copied Birckmann.
Birckmann and Kieser
berhard Kieser has not copied Birckmann's woodcuts. His woodcuts
are copies of Holbein's woodcuts, except
for the 7 that are copies of Aldegrever.
The text, however, is copied from Birckmann's books. Kieser must have had access to
several editions of Birckmann's books, since he has copied both the Latin text and
the High German text by Caspar Scheit.
Birckmann and Hollar
irckmann's pictures often deviate from Holbein's original woodcuts. He doesn't share Holbein's taste for heavy, dramatic clouds,
but he's fond of adding building in the background,
and he tries to include Death's hourglass in those scenes where Holbein has "forgotten" it.
Curiously enough, he is often followed by Hollar.
Birckmann: Death attacks with an arrow instead of a bone.
One may wonder why Hollar copies Birckmann's copy instead of going directly to the source and use
Holbein's originals. It has been suggested that maybe Hollar couldn't afford the genuine Holbein-prints
and therefore had to make do with a copy of Birckmann's inferior prints.
This explanation fails to account for why
Hollar in many other cases ignored Birckmann's changes and copy Holbein.
In these 9 plates, Hollar ignores Birckmann's changes:
Temptation and Fall (Birckmann's copy is very different),
the emperor (extra people and direction of the emperor's glance),
the cardinal (espalier, disappearing money-box),
the empress (tower in horizon),
the duke (round tower with hourglass),
the monk (Hollar keeps the pillar),
the old woman (tree instead of stalks),
the old man (hourglass and background) and
the peddler (the dog's tail).
So Hollar was quite familiar with Holbein's originals and had access to them.
A much more obvious explanation then
— and one that will probably pain many art connoisseurs —
is that Hollar in many cases has consciously preferred Birckmann's changes.
This wouldn't be a unique case: Eberhard Kieser
normally follows Holbein's originals very closely, but he has also had access to the 8 plates in
Aldegrever's dance of death, and in 7 out of 8 times, he has preferred
Aldegrever's copy to Holbein — just like Hollar in 20 out of 30 cases prefer Birckmann's copies
to Holbein's originals.
Birckmann and Valvasor
Birckmann: Creation
Valvasor: Creation
anez Vajkard Valvasor published his copy of Holbein's dance of death in 1682.
Valvasor seems to be ever fonder of Birckmann than Hollar was.
Hollar had chosen to copy some of the pictures (e.g. The Creation) from Holbein, but
even in these cases, Valvasor prefers Birckmann to Holbein.
Do we know if
Valvasor has even looked at Holbein's original woodcuts? Well, Valvasor's picture
of the Expulsion doesn't look like Birckmann,
but then again it's not a close copy of Holbein either.
Birckmann and Deuchar
ll of Hollar's 30 copperplates were copied by Deuchar.
Deuchar follows Deuchar's plates closely,
except when he introduces some changes of his own invention — for instance in the preacher, where Deuchar
follows neither Holbein nor Deuchar, but instead gives Death a small bone in his hand.
This makes Deuchar a Birckmann-copyist twice removed.
Hollar: Death behind the preacher has empty hands.
But the weird part is that Deuchar
has 46 plates in his dance of death, i.e. 16 plates more than Hollar has.
And when one looks at these extra plates (where Deuchar has not copied Hollar),
then it looks as if Deuchar consequently has chosen to copy Birckmann instead of Holbein:
Not a single one of Deuchar's 16 additions
indicate that he has ever looked at Holbein's original woodcuts, and this is deeply ironic, since Holbein is the only artist
(except Deuchar himself, of course),
who's credited anywhere in the book.
Birckmann and the unknown English artist
Later, an unknown English artist made at least 10 woodcuts in a dance of death series.
It's hard to see whether he has followed Hollar's copies of Birckmann or Deuchar's copies of Hollar's copies of Birckmann,
but there's no doubt the he has followed the Birckmann-variations some 300 years after the first issue
This unknown artist, who has copied Birckmann twice of thrice removed,
is a testament to the influence Birckmann's variations has had in Europa for many hundreds of years.
Resources
Birckmann's woodcuts with text can be seen full size at Les Bibliothèques Virtuelles Humanistes.
In order to access the pictures, click "Consulter l'ouvrage".
irckmann's woodcuts were published in 1555.
To the left is the front page from a later issue, which
sports Birckmann's logo: a fat hen.
The fat hen was an allusion to his address in Cologne, where he lived on a street called zo vetterhennen.
Since 1816 the name of the street has been Unter Fettenhennen).
berhard Kieser has not copied Birckmann's woodcuts. His woodcuts
are copies of Holbein's woodcuts, except
for the 7 that are copies of Aldegrever.
anez Vajkard Valvasor published his copy of Holbein's dance of death in 1682.
ll of Hollar's 30 copperplates were copied by Deuchar.
Deuchar follows Deuchar's plates closely,
except when he introduces some changes of his own invention — for instance in the preacher, where Deuchar
follows neither Holbein nor Deuchar, but instead gives Death a small bone in his hand.
This makes Deuchar a Birckmann-copyist twice removed.
Dances of death
Holbein