Wolfgang Stammler
Die Totentänze
"Die Totentänze by Wolfgang Stammler" is a concise art-historical study written in the early 20th century. It examines the medieval and later “Dance of Death” tradition, outlining its religious origins, visual forms, and didactic purpose while tracing how the motif evolved from church-wall cycles to prints and books and then into modern art. The book opens with the medieval mindset of pious vigilance before death and the folk belief that the dead dance and draw the living into their ranks, a warning the clergy turned into moral instruction. It distinguishes two main image types: an earlier, solemn, processional dance anchored by preaching and biblical scenes, and a later, livelier, often grotesque dance in which animated corpses seize their partners; key cycles in France, Germany, and beyond illustrate both strands. The author then follows the theme into manuscripts and blockbooks with captioned dialogues, where pairing a dead figure with a living one paved the way for the personified Death, culminating in the Renaissance with Holbein’s decisive reinterpretation of Death interrupting everyday life. Finally, the survey sketches the motif’s persistence through Baroque and Rococo variants to 19th- and early 20th-century renewals (including responses to war), and closes with a brief anthology of examples and images, ending on a lyrical reflection about death’s abiding presence.