The Rich man / Miser
© The Trustees of the British Museum
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JMJ
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Gross-Basel, the miser.
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Two Deaths are stealing the money (rather than the life) from the miser.
Once again Holbein has looked at the dance of death in his own town.
In Basel's dance of death (to the left) the usurer is sitting behind a table full of coins - as opposed
to everbody else who's dancing around.
Holbein used the same motive and same bible quote in his dance of death
(picture below to the left). The windows are barred - but that doesn't stop this thief!
Holbein's dance of death, the miser.
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The accompanying text for this letter goes: »Du narr / in diser nact / werden sy dyn seel von dir vorderen /
und die Ding die du hast überkomen / weß werden die syn«.
This is from Luke 12,20, which in Luther's version sounds:
»Du Narr! Diese Nacht wird man deine Seele von dir fordern;
und wem wird dann gehören, was du angehäuft hast?
«.
In English:
»But God said unto him,
Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?«
Various artists
Tês Kainês Diathêkês (1524)
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Polydori Vergilii (1532)
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The dance of death
Alphabet
Holbein
N
