|
| The beginning of the dance |
The original dance of death was painted during the plague years around 1463. The painting is attributed to the local painter Bernt Notke, but the truth is that there's not really any proof that Bernt Notke painted the dance(s) of death.
|
| Lübeck ca. 1870. |
The author is unknown, but due to peculiarities of the language (see example here) it is assumed that the text is based on a Middle Dutch model. The number of dancers and certain lines show that the text - like most other dances of death - ultimately goes back to the dance of death in Cimetière des Innocents in Paris.
After a couple of centuries with repairs and maintenance it finally became necessary, in 1701, to replace the painting. The paiting was copied very carefully - but at the same time some deliberate changes were introduced, which we'll examine on the page about the painter Anton Wortmann.
The old painting disappeared but fortunately the preacher (and future vicar) of the church wrote down as much of the old Low German text as he could read. He has, however, messed up his notes a bit and this will be dealt with in the page about Jacob von Melle.
A new text replaced the old one. The author, Nathanael Schlott didn't bother to look at what remained of the original medieval text but wrote a new one instead, which was more in accord with the fashion of that time.
|
| The stained glass windows today. |
By 1942 it was over: Lübeck was bombarded and the painting was destroyed - together with a large part of the city. What remained was a number of photos, drawings, lithographs, descriptions and texts inspired by the painting. The purpose of this site is to present those sources to make it possible to imagine what the original painting and the chapel looked like.
Between 1952 and 1956 Alfred Mahlau created a new kind of dance of death in the same chapel - consisting of two large stained-glass windows. This time it wasn't the medieval plagues but rather the world wars that inspired the work.
|
| The dance of death in Tallinn. |
But while Lübeck's dance of death has perished, it is still possible to visit Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, and see the seven meters long remains of a painting that has been very much like the dance in Lübeck, both concerning picture and text. There have been many theories about the relationship between these two paintings: were they painted by the same master? Or even if the painting in Tallinn is what remains of the painting in Lübeck?
Originally this site was dedicated to the dance in Lübeck, and with 156 pages (and 186 in the Danish version) this painting is still a heavyweight. To make this great amount of material accessbile I have tried to organize it into 5 groups with a little "odd ends":
The original painting is normally attributed to Bernd Notke, so he gets his own little section.
The posteriority has not been kind to Wortmanns "cloying" painting and Schlotts "boring" text. Nevertheless there's nothing that indicate that the painting's fame should have vaned during the last 241 year. The German text is accompanied by a loose English translation published by Thomas Nugent in 1768. The Danish version of this section contains a translation from 1738 entitled »Den Lybekske Dødning-dantz«.
Books. In 1489 a book was printed in Lübeck named Des Dodes Dantz with
the text and the many woodcuts being loosely based on the painting in St. Mary's Church.
Later, in 1520, came a shorter version named Des Dodes Dantz.
These books and the woodblocks were sold and brought to Copenhagen, and around 1550 a Danish version of these two books was published with the same woodcuts.
The only existing exemplar of Copenhagen's Dance of Death is in a bad condition, and several pages are missing. Fortunately there's a later edition named Dødedantz, which doesn't have any pictures, but contain the same text. Thus, by combining the text from Dødedantz and the woodcuts from the Lubeckian books it is possible to complete Copenhagen's Dance of Death. For unknown reasons, Dødedantz has been unknown for centuries so it is on these pages that the restored Copenhagen's Dance of Death. gets its first re-premiere in years.
And then a few "odd ends":
The book has nearly 500 pages and contains everything you wanted to know about the dance of death in Lübeck and more. The text from Lübeck and Tallinn is examined with annotations to almost every word. Articles about the stained glass windows, Copenhagen's dance of death, the clothes, the language and much, much more.
There are very nice colour pictures of the dance of death in Tallinn but - strangely - not from Lübeck! This painting is only reproduced as an 8-cm high concertina-style banner. You would think, that when a book is published with nearly 500 pages about a single painting, there would be room for a bigger picture!
This is a facsimile reprint of Wilhelm Mantels' book from 1866, where he lays the ground for all later research. It also contains the coloured version of the handsome lithographs by C. J. Milde from 1852 (8 plates).
Mantels was a pioneer, and pioneers tend to become outdated. On the other hand Mantels is still worth reading since he had access to the church records and almost counts as a primary source.
Freytag has added a section with the newest (i.e. years) research.
Schulte compares the structure of 14 dances of death (13 of which are German). The last part of the book is a thorough and sound comparison of the text in Lübeck/Tallinn with Des dodes dantz and Dodendantz.
Dansk 
The dance of death
Lübeck