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Some dances of death have been hidden and forgotten for centuries behind a layer of whitewash on the church wall, until they unexpectedly appeared, as for instance in Berlin and Egtved. In many cases they have later perished, as for instance in Ulm and Wil in St. Gallen.
One such was found in Strasbourg in 1824. During a restoration several murals appeared, among them a dance of death on the inside of the west and north walls of the nave. The dance started on the western wall, where the mural was in the best condition.
The mural was located seven feet above the ground, and was seven feet high. Each scene was between five and six feet in width, and the people were slightly more than life-size. Especially the first scenes were of very high quality.
The architect, August Arnold, who made the discovery, provided drawings of the best-preserved scenes, and the following year, in 1825, Friedrich Wilhelm Edel published a book, describing the church in general, »Die Neue Kirche in Straßburg«, and the newly discovered dance of death in particular: »besonders auch vom neuentdeckten Todtentanze«. The book contained Arnold's drawings lithographed by M. F. Boehm.
The publisher was Johann Heinrich Heitz, who also published the annual almanac, The Limping Messenger (»Der Hinkende Bote an der Ill und am Rhein«). In the 1825 edition of "the Messenger" a single woodcut was added showing the dance, but with feet, floor and columns in an "emendated" version (top, right corner of this page).
Because many of the scenes were in poor condition, they were not all uncovered. The scenes corresponding to the 5 lithographs that Edel/Heitz published in 1825 were given a layer of varnish, while the rest were covered with whitewash again. The first scene — the preacher — which all agreed was the most masterful, also got a minor mending.
The church burned down during the Franco-Prussian war in 1870. A photograph still exists of the preacher scene and perhaps of a few others.(1)
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The individual scenes were separated by columns, just like in La Danse Macabre of Paris. The columns were part of the painting, and the lithographs should therefore not be interpreted as if the mural was located in a colonnade. You can partly see this by the fact that the pillars — just like the floor and feet — are in poor condition at the bottom, and partly by the young man clinging to the pillar in the center of the picture.
Unlike most other dances of death, Death does not dance away with each person individually. Instead, several Deaths attack groups of people, and in this respect the dance is closer to the so-called Augsburger Totentanz.
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The primary sources are partly Edel's book with Arnold's 5 lithographs, and partly a letter from Professors G. Schweighäuser, which was published in »Kunst=blatt«.
Writing in August 1824, just 8 days after the discovery, Schweighäuser divides the painting into 21 scenes (there were probably more that just never got uncovered).(2) Edel, on the other hand, concentrates on 5 "paintings" (Gemälde), which are the 5 lithographs he reproduces in his book.
Here I have tried to combine them both. I follow Schweighäuser's sequence, but mainly Edel's description:
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In front of the pulpit sits a nun with her hands clasped in prayer. In front of her sits a dozing old man and by his side a lady who seems absent-minded. A woman in the bloom of youth sits in deep devotion.
Connoisseurs who saw this mural have stated that it was worthy of a Raphael.
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This scene is inferior to the previous ones and was executed by a different artist.
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About this point, the western wall ended. The mural was more deteriorated on the northern wall.
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One can only regret that the work has perished. According to everyone who has commented on it, it was exceptional, but apparently no one has thought of making detailed renderings in color. We have to rely on Edel's description to know that it is an (old) man sitting in front of the pulpit in scene #1 and that the figure between the two cardinals in scene #3 is a Death, although Death does not usually wear a hat.
In 1888 the 5 plates were traced for the book »Le Temple-Neuf à Strasbourg« by Aimé Reinhard. Reinhard laments that no one had made more detailed drawings while the mural was still in existence, but his own book does not make the matter any better, for here all details disappear. Edel tells us that the man next to the abbot is an old man who has long wanted to die, but in the new edition in 1888 he looks more like a young woman.
In the 1888 edition, it is also difficult to see that the figure intruding between the emperor and empress is Death.
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The loss is even greater now that we know the artist's name and have an idea of the quality requirements of the work.
Right from the start, the newly discovered painting was attributed to Martin Schongauer, also called "Hübsch Martin" (pretty Martin) because of his beautiful art, or at least to an artist of the school of Schongauer. The latter turned out to be correct, for the artist, Léonard Heischer, was in fact a pupil of Schongauer.
In 1961, Francis Rapp wrote an article about the artist, and Rapp hadn't just found a name — he had found the very contract, which the church had written with Heischer. The contract was signed on October 11th 1474 and specifies which works he was to create, namely, above all, a dance of death and an image of the Last Judgment: »Nemlich den doten dantz mit sinen figuren die dartzu gehörent und das jungste gericht«.
The dance was to be painted in oil colors, which implied that the wall had to be impregnated with boiling oil. The painting was thus not "al fresco". It was to be of natural, human size and length: »die bilde die zu dem dantze gehörent sollent auch von ölefarwen gemalt werdden und eins zimlichen mans grösse und lenge haben«.
The next point was the use of genuine precious metals. A skilled artist could cheat and use pewter, but the church required Master Lienhart to decorate all crowns, diadems and crosses with real gold and silver: »was an allen bilden von golde oder silber sich geburt zü machen als Crönen dyademen crutze oder anders das soll meister lienhart also von golde oder silber zieren«.
He also had to make 10 arches with prophets, but here he could make do with glue paint: »die selben swibogen(3) und propheten soll er machen von lyme färwen«. The explanation was probably that these prophets were placed in a dark place, so that the demands were more lax.
It should be added that both Schweighäuser and Edel mention that the dance was preceded by a number of holy men, and that this part of the mural was of inferior quality. But they both describe 3 rows of 9-10 holy men and say these were placed on the wall and not in the "swibogen"(3). Neither of them mention a "Final Judgment" at the end of the dance. Instead they mention a badly deteriorated painting of Christ in the Garden of Olives.
Mester Lienhart were to finish the job before "singethen" (Saint John / June 25th) in the year [14]75: »diss werck soll meister Lienhart gemäht und ussbereit haben biss zu singehten noch künftig im 75 Jore«. Otherwise, the Church reserved the right to pass the work on to someone else.
Finally, the finished work had to be approved by a jury. One of the members was Henri Medinger, the same merchant who had bought the gold leaf the painter needed, so we can be sure that plenty of genuine gold and silver had been used in the painting.
For this reason it's especially sad that we will never get to see it.
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Footnotes: (1) (2) (3)
A photo of the preacher-scene can be found at Musées de la ville de Strasbourg.
According to the site, they have (at least) two more photos (E.2.15408 and N.3.37948).
The letter was also published in French in Le Globe, 1824. This version was greatly shortened, and lacked the description of the 21 scenes.
This abbreviated description was later used by Gabriel Peignot, as his only source.
swibogen . . .: Oddly enough there in no English (or Danish) word for this. It is often (wrongly) translated as "flying buttress", but does in fact denote an arch made between two walls to stabilize them.
The pictures on German Wikipedia about Schwibbogen make this abundantly clear.
Dansk 
The dance of death
Miscellanea
Strasbourg