The English Dance of Death: Volumes I and II

THE Dance of Death is a Subject so well known to have employed the Talents of distinguished Painters in the Ages of Superstition, that little is required to recall it to the Recollection of the Antiquary, the Lover of the Arts, and the Artist. Holbein is more particularly recorded as having employed his Pencil in a Work of this Kind ; but, without entering into a Detail of those Masters who have treated the Subject of the Dance of Death, the present Object is merely to attract the public Attention to the Subject itself. Few Remains are now visible of the Original Paintings which represented it; but they have been perpetuated by the more durable Skill of the Engraver, and the Volumes which contain them in the latter Form, are to be found on the Shelves of the learned and curious Collector. The Subject is the same in them all ; but varied according to the Fancy of the Painters ; or, perhaps, from local Circumstances attached to the Places which they were respectively intended to decorate. The predominant Feature is, without Exception, the Representation of one or more Skeletons, sometimes, indeed, in Grotesque Attitudes, and with rather a Comic Effect, conducting Persons of all Ranks, Conditions and Ages, to the Tomb. This is a beautiful reproduction of the books published in 1815.