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HOLBEIN, Hans (1498-1554). -- David DEUTCHAR, etcher (1743-1808). The Dances of Death, through the various Stages of Human Life. London: printed by S. Gosnell for John Scott and Thomas Ostell, 1803.
4o (197 x 155 mm). Text in English and French, engraved frontispiece, additional title and 49 engraved plates after Holbein (some occasional light staining). Modern black half morocco. Provenance: A. Harris, 1833 (ownership inscription on title).
Han's Holbein's series of woodcuts was first published in 1536 and became the most famous illustrations ever published on this theme. In this edition--an example of how the woodcuts were adapted over time--the 46 Dance of Death plates are within separately engraved borders in four different designs, three of which Deutchar copied with slight variations from the borders by Abraham van Diepenbeke to Wenzel Hollar's versions. Thirty of the woodcuts are copied from Hollar's seventeenth century engraved versions, and the rest are from spurious editions of Holbein's cuts, with variations. Illustrations of the Dance of Death gave many artists the opportunity to use whatever knowledge they might have possessed concerning the anatomy of the skeleton. Regarding illustrations in this category Choulant-Frank writes: "On account of their purely emblematic nature, we had to leave out of our discussion the dances of death... symbols of Death's power over human ambitions and relations, although in these illustrations, skeletons appear in a great variety of movements, with their bones still connected by ligaments, often even with the skin and internal organs still visible. We, nevertheless, hasten to admit that these presentations give proof, on the one hand, of the anatomic knowledge of the artists of those days, though, on the other hand, they might have served the artists as anatomic studies. Their period of sway most likely began in the fifteenth century, but did not reach their climax until the time of Hans Holbein the Younger, who died in London in 1554. They remained in fashion all through the sixteenth century" (Choulant-Frank p. 47). One of the best-known images in the series shows death and the physician. Brunet III:258; Massmann 58:3; Oppermann 1154 ("Very rare edition"); Reichelt 35; See Warthin, The Physician of the Dance of Death, pp. 79-80.
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Han's Holbein's series of woodcuts was first published in 1536 and became the most famous illustrations ever published on this theme. In this edition--an example of how the woodcuts were adapted over time--the 46 Dance of Death plates are within separately engraved borders in four different designs, three of which Deutchar copied with slight variations from the borders by Abraham van Diepenbeke to Wenzel Hollar's versions. Thirty of the woodcuts are copied from Hollar's seventeenth century engraved versions, and the rest are from spurious editions of Holbein's cuts, with variations. Illustrations of the Dance of Death gave many artists the opportunity to use whatever knowledge they might have possessed concerning the anatomy of the skeleton. Regarding illustrations in this category Choulant-Frank writes: "On account of their purely emblematic nature, we had to leave out of our discussion the dances of death... symbols of Death's power over human ambitions and relations, although in these illustrations, skeletons appear in a great variety of movements, with their bones still connected by ligaments, often even with the skin and internal organs still visible. We, nevertheless, hasten to admit that these presentations give proof, on the one hand, of the anatomic knowledge of the artists of those days, though, on the other hand, they might have served the artists as anatomic studies. Their period of sway most likely began in the fifteenth century, but did not reach their climax until the time of Hans Holbein the Younger, who died in London in 1554. They remained in fashion all through the sixteenth century" (Choulant-Frank p. 47). One of the best-known images in the series shows death and the physician. Brunet III:258; Massmann 58:3; Oppermann 1154 ("Very rare edition"); Reichelt 35; See Warthin, The Physician of the Dance of Death, pp. 79-80.