ublished in Antwerp with text by Geeraerdt van Wolsschaten
(1603 - 1660).
ublished in Antwerp with text by Geeraerdt van Wolsschaten
(1603 - 1660).
The two editions contain very different illustrations.
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| 1654-edition, frontispiece. |
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| The countess, laterally inversed copy. |
his book start with a well executed fronticpiece (to the left).
The book itself consists of 18 chapters, and the title promises
that these 18 chapters are "adorned by the clever pictures by the famous painter Hans Holbein":
»verciert met de constighe Belden van den vermaerden Schilder Hans Holbeen«.
This is partially true, and in this book we see, how Holbein's famous woodcuts ended their days.
The 18 pictures are a mixed batch. Douce(1) divides them into 14 genuine Holbein-woodcuts and 4 other, child, pope, emperor and countess, which he calls »copies, and very badly engraved«.
I don't fully agree with that: Pope, emperor and countess are clearly (mirror-inversed) copies,
although they are not as bad as Douce indicates.
The woodcut with the child is of a far higher quality and is equipped
with a little woodcutter's mark in the shape of a woodcutter's knife: 
.
The woodcut with the old man is adorned with the same woodcutter-knife. Both of these woodcuts look a bit more "ugly" than they did in 1538, but this could be caused by damage and repair. Both are very detailed and if the child is a copy, then the old man is one too.
Some of the genuine Holbein-woodcuts have been marked with a combined S and A:
This could be the mark of a new owner or someone who had repaired the woodcuts.
The mark is very reminiscent of the mark 
on some of Birckmanns copies of Holbein.
When reading Douce(2), one gets the impression that he thinks it was the same woodcutter, who copied Holbein in Köln/Cologne in 1555 and manipulated the genuine woodcuts in Antwerp in 1654. This hardly sounds credible.
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| Pedler |
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| Countess |
n the 1698-edition all the woodcuts were gone: The genuine Holben-woodcuts, the copies and the frontispiece.
Instead Geeraerdt van Wolsschaten's text was illustrated with new copperplates.
There's not much to say about the copperplates. They are quite bland, and one wonders what happened to the old woodcuts. The picture of the pedler (to the left) has been combined with the backgound from the soldier.
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| Pope |
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| Emperor |
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| Old man |
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| Countess |
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| Child |
(1) Francis Douce, The Dance of Death exhibited in elegant engravings on wood with a dissertation […], 1833, p. 109-110
(2) Same book, pages 109-110 + 113-116 + 130
Dances of death
Holbein
Dance of death
Bewick