Knight Old man

 
count  
 

The Count

T he count prays for his life to be spared, while Death is about to crush him with his own shield. Death is dressed as a peasant and steps on a flail. All this are allusions to the peasants' rebellion in Germany, Austria and Switzerland 1524-1526 (the very years that Holbein and Lützelburger designed the woodcuts).

Variations: Birckmann replaces the sprouting stalks with a tree. The count's helmet (lying on the ground) is turned over. Valvasor, Hollar and Deuchar copies Birckmann.


Holbein's Imagines Mortis: count
Les Simulachres (1538)
Vogtherr 1544: count
Vogtherr (1544)
Birckmann 1555: count
Birckmann (1555)
Eberhard Kieser imaginibus: count
Eberhard Kieser (1617)
Hollar 1651: count
Hollar (1651)
Theatrum mortis humanae tripartitum: count
Valvasor (1682)
Mechel 1780: count
Mechel (1780)
Deuchar 1788: count
Deuchar (1788)
Hollar coloured 1816: count
Hollar coloured (1816)
Bechstein 1831: count
Bechstein (1831)

Knight Old man Up to Holbein's great dance of death