The Preacher
Preacher
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Sleep well.
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Scharffenberg. The preacher in Basel reads from Daniel 12:
»Viel auß den, die im Staub der Erden Schlafen, die sollen wieder werden Erwachen«
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t would seem that the preacher is not successful in getting his message through:
The woman in the left side of the picture is about to doze off,
and the man leans his heads against the pulpit, sleeping soundly. Most other members of the congregation
have rather interesting expressions in their face.
Is it a coincidence(1) that the Bible quote above the picture in
Scharffenbergs book with the mixture of Holbein and Basel is from Daniel 12?
»many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt«
(picture to the right).
Inspiration for the scene
On Aplas von Rom kan man wol selig werden, durch anzaigung der götlichen hailigen geschryfft (1518)
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Beclagung aines leyens genant Hanns schwalb über vil mißbreüch Christliches lebens, vnd darinn begriffen kürzlich von Johannes Hußsen (1521)
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he picture of the preacher in the pulpit is reminiscent of a woodcut that was used
in several booklets in the beginning of the 1500's.
To the left is
»On Aplas von Rom« (=without indulgences from Rome) from 1518 and
to the right is
»Beclagung Hanns Schwalb« from 1521.
Here too, we see the hooded congregation sitting on their small stools.
There's even an hourglass behind the preacher — just like in Holbein's picture.
The preacher stands in the pulpit selling a letter of indulgence, the people at the table to the right are
filling out the letters of indulgence, and a churchgoer in the middle of the picture throws the payment into a box.
In the middle of the church is a cross with a crown of thorns, but Jesus has left the church.
All this godlessness may explain why the congregation in
Holbein's picture have such sleepy eyes, wandering glances and even hostile facial expressions.
The little pamphlets were published more or less
anonymously, but Heinrich Vogtherr is thought to have cut the frontispiece.
In that case, it must have been odd for Vogtherr, when in 1544 he
made his copy of Holbein's dance of death
and now was copying a copy of his own preacher.
Schedel's Chronicle, preacher
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Lucas Cranach
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The picture of Death standing behind the preacher is also reminiscent of a preacher in
a woodcut from the Nuremberg Chronicle by Hartmann Schedel
(picture to the left).
When it comes to the audience, Holbein seems to have found one or two of the women in
the Passional of Christ and Antichrist by Martin Luther and Lucas Cranach,
i.e. the same work, where Holbein also found the image of
the pope(2)
What is Death holding in his hand?
Original Holbein. Paper-tape with pseudo-inscription?
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eath is dressed in a stole (long strip of material worn by Catholic ecclesiastics).
It's a bit difficult to see what Death holds in his hand.
Some copyists simply leave out this detail, so the hand is empty.
This is the solution that
Birckmann
and
Hollar
have chosen.
Georg Scharffenberg has written his initials.
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Alexander Anderson: "AMEN"
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Some artists have interpreted it as a paper-strip with a pseudo-inscription.
Georg Scharffenberg (picture to the left)
thought the paper strip
a convenient place to write his own initials: "G S", whereas
Alexander Anderson
(picture to the right) has clearly written AMEN.
One of the most popular interpretations is that Death holds a bone, or maybe a jaw-bone, symbolizing
that the preacher uses his own jaw too much.
Alfred Woltmann (Holbein And His Time, 1872) even states that Death is about to strike the preacher with the bone:
»Death is standing behind the orator in the pulpit and is
raising a jaw-bone in his hand, to strike him down, even before he has
pronounced "amen"«.
Francis Douce writes
»Death […] holds in his hand what is not
very distinguishable in Hollar's print ; in the
original it is evidently a jaw-bone«.
Douce is not correct in stating that the hand is
»not very distinguishable in Hollar's print«.
As usual
Hollar
has copied
Birckmann,
so Hollar shows Death holding his empty hand
with the fingers raised.
On the other hand Mechel has given Death a large bone in his hand,
and the letter-press for Mechel's edition was re-used by Deuchar,
Wildridge and "Mr. Bewick".
The description of the preacher says
»Death, who is behind him with a stole about his
neck, holds over his head the bone of a dead body«.
This explains why these three copyists have followed the letter-press and equipped Death with a bone —
but they have done so in each their fashion, as can be seen here:
Hollar: Empty hands;
indistinct hourglass
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Deuchar: A little bone;
no hourglass
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The maniple
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In my opinion the most sensible explanation is that of Mischa von Perger, who
suggests(3)
that the object is a "maniple" (picture to the left).
A maniple is an embroidered strip of fabric of samme colour and breadth as the stole.
The priest lets it hang over his forearm close to the wrist.
The maniple is not important in itself, but together with the stole, the maniple shows Death as wearing Catholic vestments,
which is in line with Holbein's general negative attitude towards the Catholic Church.
Variations: Hollar's hourglass is so indistinct that it's hard to see it.
Deuchar has missed the hourglass, when he copied Hollar.
Deuchar, the unknown English artist
and "Mr. Bewick" have all given Death a bone in his hand,
as described by the letter-press (which they took from Christian de Mechel).
But the position of hand and bone
are very different in these latter three variants.
Various Artists
Footnotes:
(1)
(2)
(3)
Is it a coincidence?. . . : Yes, it is. But it's a rather amusing coincidence.
This observation is made by Stephanie Buck
in "Die Jahre in Basel 1515-1532", München (2006).
In private correspondence.
Dances of death
Holbein's dance of death
Preacher
