Count Countess

 
Old man  
 

The Old man

Haselbach, Old man
Haselbach, Old man

L Holbein, Initial W, Hermit eath leads the old man by the hand towards the open grave. The man seems to show more interest in Deaths dulcimer. The hourglass stands at the end of the wall — time is left behind.

The picture is reminiscent of the hermit in Holbein's dance of death alphabet (picture to the right). In both cases, Death leads an old, fragile man by the hand. In one case, the hermit is about to stumble over a stone, in the other case the man will fall into the open grave.

Dance of death in Wasserburg's ossuary, 1837
The dance of death in Wasserburg

Holbein's woodcut has inspired the dance of death in the chapel in Haselbach (picture to the left) and the dance of death from the former ossuary in Wasserburg from 1837 (picture to the right).

Variations: Birckmann has placed the hourglass next to the grave, removed the tree and added a village in the background. For once he's not imitated by Hollar and Deuchar.
Bewick places the hourglass on a sarcophagus and spreads a few bones on the grounds.

Holbein's Imagines Mortis: Old man
Les Simulachres (1538)
Vogtherr 1544: Old man
Vogtherr (1544)
Birckmann 1555: Old man
Birckmann (1555)
Scharffenberg 1578: Old man
Scharffenberg (1578)
Eberhard Kieser imaginibus: Old man
Eberhard Kieser (1617)
Hollar 1651: Old man
Hollar (1651)
Mechel 1780: Old man
Mechel (1780)
Bewick 1789: Old man
Bewick (1789)
Deuchar 1788: Old man
Deuchar (1788)
Hollar coloured 1816: Old man
Hollar coloured (1816)
Schlotthauer 1832: Old man
Schlotthauer (1832)

Count Countess Up to Holbein's great dance of death