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| Manuel: Death and the maiden |
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| Bern's dance of death by Niklaus Manuel. |
One Death comes crawling with an hourglass on his back. The other Death grabs the maiden's breasts and thighs.
Presumably Holbein has looked at two different works by Niklaus Manuel Deutsch. On Manuel's famous picture of Death and the maiden from 1517 (image to the left) Death caresses the maiden and sticks his hand up between her legs.
Holbein probably copied the picture of Death crawling with a hourglass on the back from Manuel's other and even more famous work, i.e. the dance of death in Bern (picture to the right).
The accompanying text goes: »Das lachen würt vermischt mit schmerzen / vnd die letsten der freüd bekümmeret das weynen / Sy furen ir tag in den guten vnd schnell stygen sy zu der hell«.
The first part is from Proverbs 14,13, which in Luther's version sounds: »Auch beim Lachen kann das Herz trauern, und nach der Freude kommt Leid«. In English: »Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness«.
The second part is from Job 21,13, which Elberfelder renders thus: »Im Glück geniessen sie ihre Tage, und in Ruhe sinken sie in den Scheol hinab«. In English: »They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave« (grave and Hell are two ways to translate the Hebrew "Sheol".
The dance of death
Holbein
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