Merian’s Todten-Tanz or Dance of Death – Volume with 44 Engravings
$8,750
Out of stock
Todten-Tanz, wie derselbe in der löblichen und weitberühmten Statt Basel als ein Spiegel Menschlicher Beschaffenheit gantz künstlich ausgemahlet zu sehen ist OR Dance of the Dead, as it can be seen in the praiseworthy and world-famous city of Basel, painted quite artificially as a mirror of human nature
This rare and early publication is Matthäus Merian’s Todten-Tanz, wie derselbe in der löblichen und weitberühmten Statt Basel als ein Spiegel Menschlicher Beschaffenheit gantz künstlich ausgemahlet zu sehen ist or Dance of the Dead, as it can be seen in the praiseworthy and world-famous city of Basel, painted quite artificially as a mirror of human nature. This fourth edition was published in Frankfurt in 1649 by Merian.
There are 44 engravings including the memento mori still life and the picture puzzle (the bearded nobleman face when viewed upside down transforms into the grinning grimace of Death). There is an engraved title page as well. The volume is bound in later vellum with old antiphonary leaf as cover.
This was the only edition was published by Matthäus Merian himself. Merian’s first rendered the ‘Dance of Death’ mural in 1616, just after Emanuel Bock’s restoration. He reworked the engravings himself for this publication from his originals done in 1621. Because he was ill while completing this edition, he was preoccupied with thoughts of death, and thus “enhanced the 1649 edition with a treatise on dying and two sermons by the church fathers Cyprian and Chrysostom.” Merian published the most complete and reliable representation of the ‘Dance of Death.’ He viewed the mural as “‘a mirror of human existence’ in which people should recognize themselves in their transience and the resulting demand for a meaningful, God-devoted Christian life.” (exhibition catalogue: Dances of Death of the HAB)
Matthaeus Merian (1593-1650) was part of an exceptional artistic family. He was an artist and engraver himself that was born in Switzerland, and received training in engraving in Zurich, Nancy, Paris, and Strasbourg. He settled in Frankfurt where he worked for Johann Theodor de Bry, another accomplished publisher, and married his daughter, Maria Magdelena de Bry. He was the father of Matthaeus the Younger and the celebrated naturalist and artist, Maria Sibylla Merian. He took over De Bry’s published house upon his death in 1623, and became particularly noted for his town views due to their artistry and accuracy.
Provenance: German private collection for almost 90 years (engraved bookplate)
