Dance of Death: The Count (c. 1526): Art, History and Details

Dance of Death: The Count (c. 1526) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Hans Holbein the Younger (German, active England and Switzerland, 1497/98–1543).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Dance of Death is the most celebrated series of woodcuts designed by Holbein. The 41 blocks were cut by Hans Lützelburger in the years immediately before his death in 1526, though the set was not published until 1538. Dance of Death originated as a drama in the middle of the 1300s. Following widespread epidemics such as the black plague, these plays took place in a cemetery or churchyard. Dressed in pale costumes painted to resemble skeletons, actors personified Death and summoned a group of people from all social classes in a dancelike procession. In a period when the life span was short, the purpose of the Dance of Death was to remind the people to prepare for the Last Judgement.

Object facts

• Title: Dance of Death: The Count
• Date: c. 1526
• Creator attribution: Hans Holbein the Younger (German, active England and Switzerland, 1497/98–1543)
• Culture: Germany
• Type: Print
• Technique: woodcut
• Collection: PR - Woodcut
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1929.164

Collection credit

Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland

Further reading listed by the museum

• "Woodcuts: Dance of Death Series by Hans Holbein the Younger." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art16, no. 8 (October 1929): 141-151.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.