The Monk

The Holbein-dagger: the protesting Monk with his charity box.

e have seen the protesting monk before — both on the Holbein dagger (picture to the left) and in the dance of death alphabet. In these, earlier, versions Holbein has been spatially constrained: On the dagger sheath, the monk is all huddled-up — and in the alphabet, he and Death shares only a square inch.

In the great dance of death, Holbein has a chance to show at last, why the monk is protesting so vehemently: The monk protects his charity box and his full bag by holding them away from Death. He has sworn to renounce this world and its temptations, but still the monk values his charity box higher than life itself.

Anderson: The writing on the stone

Variations: Birckmann replaces the dramatic clouds with a village in the background; the pillar is removed from the ruin.
Deuchar also draws a village instead of clouds.
Mechel draws the entire dog and not just the hindmost part; the hourglass has disappeared.
Bewick places the hourglass on the brick wall and adds a block of stone in front of the gate.
Anderson gives Death devil's wings and writes an almost legible text on Bewick's stone block.