Heinrich Vogtherr

The dance of death is complemented with an extra picture: The adulterers. Death stands behind the bed, holding the woman by her hair and placing his hand on the jealous husband's dagger.

Vogtherr adds a crucifixion scene, copied after Albrecht Dürer.

s early as in 1544, Heinrich Vogtherr the Elder (1490-1556) published his kopi of Holbein's dance of death in Augsburg. This makes his dance of death the first German Holbein-clone, (unless you include Aldegrever's 8 pictures). Vogtherr's dance of death is a rather close copy of Holbein's work, except that the images are laterally reversed.

Vogtherr follows the old printer's proofs, which explains the German titles. For the same reason he leaves out the astrologer and (naturally) the pictures that were only added to the dance in the later editions from 1545-1562.

Vogtherr adds 2 more pictures: The crucifixion (to the right) and the adulterers (to the left).

The sequence is the same as in the printer's proofs and departs radically from Simulachres & Historiées. First comes the scenes from The Old Testament, then ecclesiastics (including the physician), secular men, and women ending with mother and child: Erschaffung des Menschen, Einführung ins paradeyß, Austreybung Adams, Fluch des Menschen, Der Pabst, Der Cardinal, Der Bischoff, Der Thumbherr, Der Abt, Der Pfarrer, Der Predicant, Der Münch, Der Artzet Der Kayser, Der Künig, Der Hertzog, Der Graff Der Ritter, Der Edelman, Der Rathsherr, Der Fürsprech, Der Richter, Der Reychmann, Der Kawffmann, Der Kramer, Der Schiffmann, Der Eebrecher, Der Ackermann, Der Alltmann, Die Kayserin, Die Künigin, Die Hertzogin, Die Gräffin, Die Edelfraw, Die Abtissin, Die Nunn, Das Allt weib, Das Jung kind, Die Gepain aller Menschen, Das Crucifix, Das Jüngst gericht and Das wappen des Todts

The book started with a discussion between Death and man, and each picture had a dialogue (in German) between Death and the dying, just as there is in all the "proper" dances of death. Unfortunately I've only been able to find fractions of this dialogue.

The publisher Jost de Negker (1485-1544, also called Jobst de Necker / Nekker / Dienecker) was a splendid artists in his own right, who is credited with the invention of multi-colour prints and the chiaroscuro-technique. In his older years he branched out as a publisher.

Many commentators want to affix de Negker's name to this book, but it's hard to see what role he's supposed to have played: The motifs were already designed by Holbein, and we know that Vogtherr cut the blocks because he added his mark:

Vogtherr removed Hans Lützelburger's woodcutter's mark: a conjoined H and L in the lower, left corner of the duchess' bed. (see picture to the left). Vogtherr replaced Lützelburger's mark with the year 1542 (picture to the right).

"ve tibi corona Superbia mea"

Mirror image of HVE Vogtherr then added his own mark — a laterally reversed HVE (Heinrich Vogtherr Elterer) — in the lower right corner of the advocate. Click here for a super-sized image of Vogtherr's advocate.

On the picture of the pope, a devil comes flying with a letter of indulgence. On the letter is a pseudo-inscription, which Vogtherr has replaced with a legible text (picture to the right): "ve tibi corona Superbia mea". I'm not an expert on Latin, but it sounds like a variation of Isaiah 28:1 "vae coronae superbiae". Isaiah means "Woe to the crown of pride", so the flying devil probably says "Woe to you, my crown of pride".

Resources

The woodcuts can be seen in large size at Bildindex der Kunst und Architektur des Bildarchivs (search for "totentanz"). The site is a fantastic resource with 1.900.000 pictures! If you're looking for something old and German, look no further.