The Flickr Vanitas Image Generatr

A collection of various scenes depicting landscapes and people from different walks of life is presented in a montage around a self-portrait of Adriaen van de Venne. Each panel showcases a unique setting, ranging from countryside gatherings to maritime activities, revealing a glimpse into the social and cultural life of the era.

A collection of detailed scenes is arranged around a central self portrait of Adriaen van Ostade. Each panel depicts various his paintings, from bustling markets to serene landscapes, suggesting different aspects of everyday life from a bygone era.

Strobist: AB1600 with gridded 60 X30 softbox camera left. Reflector camera right. Triggered by Cybersync.

Milan

Milan

Faded sunflower from last summer

The Danse Macabre (/dɑːns məˈkɑːb(rə)/; French pronunciation: [dɑ̃s ma.kabʁ]), also called the Dance of Death, is an artistic genre of allegory from the Late Middle Ages on the universality of death.

The Danse Macabre consists of the dead, or a personification of death, summoning representatives from all walks of life to dance along to the grave, typically with a pope, emperor, king, child, and labourer. The effect is both frivolous and terrifying, beseeching its audience to react emotionally. It was produced as memento mori, to remind people of the fragility of their lives and the vanity of earthly glory.[1] Its origins are postulated from illustrated sermon texts; the earliest recorded visual scheme (apart from 14th century Triumph of Death paintings) was a now-lost mural at Holy Innocents' Cemetery in Paris dating from 1424 to 1425. Written in 1874 by the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns, Danse Macabre, Op. 40, is a haunting symphonic "poem" for orchestra. It premiered 24 January 1875.

Background
Religion is an important contextual factor around the Dance of Death tradition and its effect on the population, with new eschatology concepts in the fourteenth century being critical for the development of the Dance of Death.[2] Early examples of Dance of Death artwork were present in religious contexts such as murals on Christian church walls. These served to remind people about the inevitability of death and urge moral reflection in order to cope with this reality.[3] In his 1998 study on medieval religious practices, historian Francis Rapp wrote that

Christians were moved by the sight of the Infant Jesus playing on his mother's knee; their hearts were touched by the Pietà; and patron saints reassured them by their presence. But, all the while, the danse macabre urged them not to forget the end of all earthly things.[4]

It is generally agreed upon by scholars that Dance of Death depictions do show realistic dancing based on the quality of gestures seen in artwork and familiarity with steps found in texts.[2] The paintings include body positions that seem to indicate movement, particular gestures, and specific orders and dynamics between the characters, while texts use relevant dance vocabulary. These elements may indicate the presence of past enacted dances and that the depictions were read for a performative function, as hypothesized by Gertsman in her paper “Pleyinge and Peyntynge: Performing the Dance of Death.” This view centers on the incorporation of both visual and theatrical devices in these depictions to create effective artwork.[5] Gertsman writes that

By drawing its inspiration from the sphere of performance, the Dance of Death imagery, along with its text, invites a performative reading, informed by specific structures of the verses, the concept of movement, and the understanding of the body language of the danse macabre's protagonists.

However, there is scarce evidence surrounding a physical dancing performance tradition of the Dance of Death outside of its other depictions.[2] The Danse Macabre was possibly enacted at village pageants and at court masques, with people "dressing up as corpses from various strata of society", and may have been the origin of costumes worn during Allhallowtide.[6][7][8][9] Regardless, its main influence has been in the form of visual arts such as murals, paintings, and more. The bubonic plague and its devastating effects on the European population were significantly contributing factors to the inspiration and solidification of the Dance of Death tradition in the fourteenth century.[2] In her thesis, The Black Death and its Effect on 14th and 15th Century Art, Anna Louise Des Ormeaux describes the effect of the Black Death on art, mentioning the Danse Macabre as she does so:

Some plague art contains gruesome imagery that was directly influenced by the mortality of the plague or by the medieval fascination with the macabre and awareness of death that were augmented by the plague. Some plague art documents psychosocial responses to the fear that plague aroused in its victims. Other plague art is of a subject that directly responds to people's reliance on religion to give them hope.[10]

The cultural impact of mass outbreaks of disease are not fleeting or temporary. In their paper on “Black Death, Plagues, and the Danse Macabre. Depictions of Epidemics in Art,” Rittershaus and Eschenberg discuss artistic representations of various epidemics starting with the bubonic plague and extending to cholera and recent epidemics. The suffering and realization of death’s closeness, which the black death caused in Europe, were integrated with concepts of morality and Christianity to give rise to the Dance of Death tradition as a direct response to the epidemic. Cholera cases in the nineteenth century inspired a resurgence of Dance of Death depictions after the initial black death depictions, with religious connotations still present but less important.[3] The Dance of Death tradition is a testament to the profound impact of an epidemic on people as depicted in art. A disease’s effect can endure past the initial stages of outbreak, in its deep etching upon the culture and society. This can be seen in the artworks and motifs of Danse Macabre as people attempted to cope with the death surrounding them.

Paintings

Charnel house at Holy Innocents' Cemetery, Paris, with mural of a Danse Macabre (1424–25)
What is often considered to be the earliest recorded visual example is the lost mural on the south wall of the Cemetery of the Holy Innocents in Paris. It was painted in 1424–25 during the regency of John, Duke of Bedford. It features an emphatic inclusion of a dead crowned king at a time when France did not have a crowned king. The mural may well have had a political subtext.[11] However, some have argued that 14th century Triumph of Death paintings such as the fresco by Francesco Traini are also examples of danse macabre.[12]

There were also painted schemes in Basel (the earliest dating from c. 1440); a series of paintings on canvas by Bernt Notke (1440–1509) in Lübeck (1463); the initial fragment of the original Bernt Notke painting Danse Macabre (accomplished at the end of the 15th century) in the St Nicholas' Church, Tallinn, Estonia; the painting at the back wall of the chapel of Sv. Marija na Škrilinama in the Istrian town of Beram (1474), painted by Vincent of Kastav; the painting in the Holy Trinity Church of Hrastovlje, Istria by John of Kastav (1490).


Bernt Notke: Surmatants (Totentanz) from St. Nicholas' Church, Tallinn, end of 15th century (today in the Art Museum of Estonia)

An abbot and a bailiff, dancing the Dance Macabre, miniature from a 1486 book, printed by Guy Marchant in Paris
A notable example was painted on the cemetery walls of the Dominican Abbey, in Bern, by Niklaus Manuel Deutsch (1484–1530) in 1516/7. This work of art was destroyed when the wall was torn down in 1660, but a 1649 copy by Albrecht Kauw (1621–1681) is extant. There was also a Dance of Death painted around 1430 and displayed on the walls of Pardon Churchyard at Old St Paul's Cathedral, London, with texts by John Lydgate (1370–1451) known as the 'Dance of (St) Poulys', which was destroyed in 1549.

The deathly horrors of the 14th century such as recurring famines, the Hundred Years' War in France, and, most of all, the Black Death, were culturally assimilated throughout Europe. The omnipresent possibility of sudden and painful death increased the religious desire for penance, but it also evoked a hysterical desire for amusement while still possible; a last dance as cold comfort. The Danse Macabre combines both desires: in many ways similar to the medieval mystery plays, the dance-with-death allegory was originally a didactic dialogue poem to remind people of the inevitability of death and to advise them strongly to be prepared at all times for death (see memento mori and Ars moriendi).

Short verse dialogues between Death and each of its victims, which could have been performed as plays, can be found in the direct aftermath of the Black Death in Germany and in Spain (where it was known as the Totentanz and la Danza de la Muerte, respectively).

The French term Danse Macabre may derive from the Latin Chorea Machabæorum, literally "dance of the Maccabees."[13][14] In 2 Maccabees, a deuterocanonical book of the Bible, the grim martyrdom of a mother and her seven sons is described and was a well-known medieval subject. It is possible that the Maccabean Martyrs were commemorated in some early French plays, or that people just associated the book's vivid descriptions of the martyrdom with the interaction between Death and its prey.

An alternative explanation is that the term entered France via Spain, the Arabic: مقابر, maqabir (pl., "cemeteries") being the root of the word. Both the dialogues and the evolving paintings were ostensive penitential lessons that even illiterate people (who were the overwhelming majority) could understand.

Mural paintings

Simon Marmion: Right wing (inside) of the former high altar of the abbey church of St-Bertin in St-Omer (1455–1459) with the depiction of a dance of death fresco in the cloister gallery
Frescoes and murals dealing with death had a long tradition, and were widespread. For example, the legend of the Three Living and the Three Dead. On a ride or hunt, three young gentlemen meet three cadavers (sometimes described as their ancestors) who warn them, Quod fuimus, estis; quod sumus, vos eritis ("What we were, you are; what we are, you will be"). Numerous mural versions of that legend from the 13th century onwards have survived (for instance, in the Hospital Church of Wismar or the residential Longthorpe Tower outside Peterborough). Since they showed pictorial sequences of men and corpses covered with shrouds, those paintings are sometimes regarded as cultural precursors of the new genre.

A Danse Macabre painting may show a round dance headed by Death or, more usually, a chain of alternating dead and live dancers. From the highest ranks of the mediaeval hierarchy (usually pope and emperor) descending to its lowest (beggar, peasant, and child), each mortal's hand is taken by an animated skeleton or cadaver. The famous Totentanz by Bernt Notke in St. Mary's Church, Lübeck (destroyed during the Allied bombing of Lübeck in World War II), presented the dead dancers as very lively and agile, making the impression that they were actually dancing, whereas their living dancing partners looked clumsy and passive. The apparent class distinction in almost all of these paintings is completely neutralized by Death as the ultimate equalizer, so that a sociocritical element is subtly inherent to the whole genre. The Totentanz of Metnitz, for example, shows how a pope crowned with his tiara is being led into Hell by Death.

A mural depicting a chain of alternating living and dead dancers
Lübecker Totentanz by Bernt Notke (around 1463, destroyed in a bombing raid in 1942)
Usually, a short dialogue is attached to each pair of dancers, in which Death is summoning him (or, more rarely, her) to dance and the summoned is moaning about impending death. In the first printed Totentanz textbook (Anon.: Vierzeiliger oberdeutscher Totentanz, Heidelberger Blockbuch, c. 1455/58), Death addresses, for example, the emperor:

Emperor, your sword won't help you out
Sceptre and crown are worthless here
I've taken you by the hand
For you must come to my dance

At the lower end of the Totentanz, Death calls, for example, the peasant to dance, who answers:

I had to work very much and very hard
The sweat was running down my skin
I'd like to escape death nonetheless
But here I won't have any luck

Various examples of Danse Macabre in Slovenia and Croatia below:

The fresco at the back wall of the Church of St. Mary of the Rocks in the Istrian town of Beram (1474), painted by Vincent of Kastav, Croatia
The fresco at the back wall of the Church of St. Mary of the Rocks in the Istrian town of Beram (1474), painted by Vincent of Kastav, Croatia

John of Kastav: Detail of the Dance Macabre fresco (1490) in the Holy Trinity Church in Hrastovlje, Slovenia
John of Kastav: Detail of the Dance Macabre fresco (1490) in the Holy Trinity Church in Hrastovlje, Slovenia

Dance of Death (replica of 15th century fresco; National Gallery of Slovenia)
Dance of Death (replica of 15th century fresco; National Gallery of Slovenia)

The famous Danse Macabre in Hrastovlje in the Holy Trinity Church
The famous Danse Macabre in Hrastovlje in the Holy Trinity Church

Danse Macabre in St Maria in Bienno, 16th century
Danse Macabre in St Maria in Bienno, 16th century
Hans Holbein's woodcuts
The Dance of Death

Example of a woodcut from the book [The Abbott]
AuthorHans Holbein the Younger
Original titleDanse Macabre
GenreAllegory, satire, woodcuts and death
Publication date1538
Publication placeEngland

Renowned for his Dance of Death series, the famous designs by Hans Holbein the Younger (1497–1543) were drawn in 1526 while he was in Basel. They were cut in wood by the accomplished Formschneider (block cutter) Hans Lützelburger.

William Ivins (quoting W. J. Linton) writes of Lützelburger's work wrote:

"'Nothing indeed, by knife or by graver, is of higher quality than this man's doing.' For by common acclaim the originals are technically the most marvelous woodcuts ever made."[15]

These woodcuts soon appeared in proofs with titles in German. The first book edition, titled Les Simulachres et Historiées Faces de la Mort and containing forty-one woodcuts, was published at Lyons by the Treschsel brothers in 1538. The popularity of the work, and the currency of its message, are underscored by the fact that there were eleven editions before 1562, and over the sixteenth century perhaps as many as a hundred unauthorized editions and imitations.[16] Ten further designs were added in later editions.

The Dance of Death (1523–26) refashions the late-medieval allegory of the Danse Macabre as a reformist satire, and one can see the beginnings of a gradual shift from traditional to reformed Christianity.[17] That shift had many permutations however, and in a study Natalie Zemon Davis has shown that the contemporary reception and afterlife of Holbein's designs lent themselves to neither purely Catholic or Protestant doctrine, but could be outfitted with different surrounding prefaces and sermons as printers and writers of different political and religious leanings took them up. Most importantly, "The pictures and the Bible quotations above them were the main attractions […] Both Catholics and Protestants wished, through the pictures, to turn men's thoughts to a Christian preparation for death.".[18]

The 1538 edition which contained Latin quotations from the Bible above Holbein's designs, and a French quatrain below composed by Gilles Corrozet (1510–1568) actually did not credit Holbein as the artist. It bore the title: Les simulachres & / HISTORIEES FACES / DE LA MORT, AUTANT ELE/gammēt pourtraictes, que artifi/ciellement imaginées. / A Lyon. / Soubz l'escu de COLOIGNE. / M.D. XXXVIII. ("Images and Illustrated facets of Death, as elegantly depicted as they are artfully conceived.")[19] These images and workings of death as captured in the phrase "histories faces" of the title "are the particular exemplification of the way death works, the individual scenes in which the lessons of mortality are brought home to people of every station."[20]


From Holbein's Simolachri, Historie, e Figure de la Morte (in Lyone Appresso Giovan Frellone, 1549)

The Abbess from Holbein's Simolachri, Historie, e Figure de la Morte, 1549
In his preface to the work Jean de Vauzèle, the Prior of Montrosier, addresses Jehanne de Tourzelle, the Abbess of the Convent at St. Peter at Lyons, and names Holbein's attempts to capture the ever-present, but never directly seen, abstract images of death "simulachres." He writes: "[…] simulachres les dis ie vrayement, pour ce que simulachre vient de simuler, & faindre ce que n'est point." ("Simulachres they are most correctly called, for simulachre derives from the verb to simulate and to feign that which is not really there.") He next employs a trope from the memento mori (remember we all must die) tradition and a metaphor from printing which well captures the undertakings of Death, the artist, and the printed book before us in which these simulachres of death barge in on the living: "Et pourtant qu'on n'a peu trouver chose plus approchante a la similitude de Mort, que la personne morte, on d'icelle effigie simulachres, & faces de Mort, pour en nos pensees imprimer la memoire de Mort plus au vis, que ne pourroient toutes les rhetoriques descriptiones de orateurs."[21] ("And yet we cannot discover any one thing more near the likeness of Death than the dead themselves, whence come these simulated effigies and images of Death's affairs, which imprint the memory of Death with more force than all the rhetorical descriptions of the orators ever could.").


The Plowman from Holbein's Simolachri, Historie, e Figure de la Morte, 1549

The Pedlar from Holbein's Simolachri, Historie, e Figure de la Morte (in Lyone Appresso Giovan Frellone, 1549)
Holbein's series shows the figure of "Death" in many disguises, confronting individuals from all walks of life. None escape Death's skeletal clutches, not even the pious.[22] As Davis writes, "Holbein's pictures are independent dramas in which Death comes upon his victim in the midst of the latter's own surroundings and activities.[23] This is perhaps nowhere more strikingly captured than in the wonderful blocks showing the plowman earning his bread by the sweat of his brow only to have his horses speed him to his end by Death. The Latin from the 1549 Italian edition pictured here reads: "In sudore vultus tui, vesceris pane tuo." ("Through the sweat of thy brow you shall eat your bread"), quoting Genesis 3.19. The Italian verses below translate: ("Miserable in the sweat of your brow,/ It is necessary that you acquire the bread you need eat,/ But, may it not displease you to come with me,/ If you are desirous of rest."). Or there is the nice balance in composition Holbein achieves between the heavy-laden traveling salesman insisting that he must still go to market while Death tugs at his sleeve to put down his wares once and for all: "Venite ad me, qui onerati estis." ("Come to me, all ye who [labour and] are heavy laden"), quoting Matthew 11.28. The Italian here translates: "Come with me, wretch, who are weighed down / Since I am the dame who rules the whole world:/ Come and hear my advice / Because I wish to lighten you of this load."[24]


Danse Macabre, a reminder of the universality of death in the St. Peter and St. Paul church, Vilnius
Musical settings

This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. Please relocate any relevant information into other sections or articles. (August 2023)
Musical settings of the motif include:

Mattasin oder Toden Tanz, 1598, by August Nörmiger
Totentanz. Paraphrase on "Dies irae." by Franz Liszt, 1849, a set of variations based on the plainsong melody "Dies Irae".
Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns, 1874
Songs and Dances of Death, 1875–77, by Modest Mussorgsky
Symphony No. 4, 2nd Movement, 1901, by Gustav Mahler
Valse triste, 1903, by Jean Sibelius
Totentanz der Prinzipien, 1914, by Arnold Schoenberg
The Green Table, 1932, ballet by Kurt Jooss
Totentanz, 1934, by Hugo Distler, inspired by the Lübecker Totentanz
"Scherzo (Dance of Death)," in Op. 14 Ballad of Heroes, 1939, by Benjamin Britten
Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67, 4th movement, "Dance of Death," 1944, by Dmitri Shostakovich
Der Kaiser von Atlantis, oder Die Tod-Verweigerung, 1944, by Viktor Ullmann and Peter Kien
Le Grand Macabre, opera written by György Ligeti (Stockholm 1978)
Danse Macabre, song, 1984, by Celtic Frost, Swiss extreme metal band
Dance of Death, 2003, an album and a song by Iron Maiden, heavy metal band
Cortège & Danse Macabre from the symphonic suite Cantabile, 2009, by Frederik Magle
Totentanz (Adès) by Thomas Adès, 2013, a piece for voices and orchestra based on the 15th century text.
La Danse Macabre, song on the Shovel Knight soundtrack, 2014, by Jake Kaufman
Danse Macabre, song by Purson, 2014
Danse Macabre, song by The Oh Hellos, 2015
Dance Macabre, song, 2018, by Ghost (Swedish band), Swedish rock band
La danse macabre, song, 2019, by Clément Belio, French multi-instrumentalist
Danse Macabre by Jörg Widmann, 2022[25]
Danse Macabre, song and album, 2023, by Duran Duran, English new wave band
Danse Macabre by Prach Boondiskulchok, 2023[26]
Danse Macabre by Heaven Pierce Her, 2023
Textual examples of the Danse Macabre
The Danse Macabre was a frequent motif in poetry, drama and other written literature in the Middle Ages in several areas of western Europe. There is a Spanish Danza de la Muerte, a French Danse Macabre, and a German Totentanz with various Latin manuscripts written during the 14th century.[27] Printed editions of books began appearing in the 15th century, such as the ones produced by Guy Marchant of Paris. Similarly to the musical or artistic representations, the texts describe living and dead persons being called to dance or form a procession with Death.[28]

Danse Macabre texts were often, though not always, illustrated with illuminations and woodcuts.[29]

There is one danse macabre text devoted entirely to women: The Danse Macabre of Women. This work survives in five manuscripts, and two printed editions. In it, 36 women of various ages, in Paris, are called from their daily lives and occupations to join the Dance with Death. An English translation of the French manuscript was published by Ann Tukey Harrison in 1994.[30]

John Lydgate's Dance of Death is a Middle English poem written in the early 15th century. It is a translation of a French poem of the same name, and it is one of the most popular examples of the Danse Macabre genre.[31]

The poem is a moral allegory in which Death leads a procession of people from all walks of life to their graves. The poem includes a variety of characters, including the emperor, the pope, the cardinal, the bishop, the abbot, the prioress, the monk, the nun, the doctor, the lawyer, the merchant, the knight, the plowman, the beggar, and the child.[32] The poem is written in rhyme royal, a seven-line stanzaic form that was popular in the Middle Ages.[33]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danse_Macabre

The Skeleton Dance is a 1929 Silly Symphony animated short subject with a comedy horror theme. It was produced and directed by Walt Disney and animated by Ub Iwerks.[1] In the film,[2] reanimated human skeletons dance and make music around a spooky graveyard—a modern film example of medieval European "danse macabre" imagery. It is the first entry in the Silly Symphony series.[1] The short's copyright was renewed in 1957, and as a published work from 1929, it entered the US public domain on January 1, 2025.[3][a]

Plot
Duration: 5 minutes and 32 seconds.5:32
The full short film The Skeleton Dance
The short film begins with an owl perched on a branch, in front of the full moon, then shows an empty graveyard with a church in the background. The minute hand on the church's clock strikes twelve, causing its bell to start tolling, which causes a group of bats to flee from the belfry. A dog howls at the moon, while two cats fight over a grave. A skeleton emerges from the grave and frolics, but at the sound of the owl, the skeleton hides behind a grave. Upset about overreacting to the owl's hooting, the skeleton detaches its head from its neck and chucks it at the owl, knocking the owl's feathers off. Then the head bounces back to the grave and returns to its body.

Next, four skeletons emerge from the grave and start dancing. One of them takes two bones and plays its partner's spine and head to produce music. Another skeleton dances alone and then plays a cat's tail as if it were a violin. The crowing of a rooster tells them it's close to dawn. The skeletons rush to hide, but their bodies collide and blend. The skeletons, now mingled, return to the grave.

Production
The origins of The Skeleton Dance can be traced to mid-1928, when Walt Disney was on his way to New York to arrange a distribution deal for his new Mickey Mouse cartoons and to record the soundtrack for his first sound cartoon, Steamboat Willie. During a stopover in Kansas City, Disney paid a visit to his old acquaintance Carl Stalling, then an organist at the Isis Theatre, to compose scores for his first two Mickey shorts, Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho. While there, Stalling proposed to Disney a series of "musical novelty" cartoons combining music and animation, which would become the genesis for the Silly Symphony series, and pitched an idea about skeletons dancing in a graveyard. Stalling would eventually join Disney's studio as a staff composer.[1]


Art work featuring skeletons by Thomas Rowlandson that might have inspired Ub Iwerks' design of the skeletons in the short
Animation on The Skeleton Dance began in January 1929, with Ub Iwerks animating the majority of the film in almost six weeks.[1] Iwerks pulled inspiration for the skeletons from "pictures drawn by the English cartoonist Rowlandson".[4]


The original Xylophone that the sound effects were produced with. On display at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
The soundtrack was recorded at Pat Powers' Cinephone studio in New York in the following month, along with that of the Mickey Mouse short The Opry House. The final negative cost $5,485.40.[1]

Reception
Variety (July 17, 1929): "Title tells the story, but not the number of laughs included in this sounded cartoon short. The number is high. Peak is reached when one skeleton plays the spine of another in xylophone fashion, using a pair of thigh bones as hammers. Perfectly timed xylo accompaniment completes the effect. The skeletons hoof and frolic. One throws his skull at a hooting owl and knocks the latter's feathers off. Four Bones brothers do a unison routine that's a howl. To set the finish, a rooster crows at the dawn. The skeletons, through for the night, dive into a nearby grave, pulling the lid down after them. Along comes a pair of feet, somehow left behind. They kick on the slab and a bony arm reaches out to pull them in. All takes place in a graveyard. Don't bring your children."[5]

The Film Daily (July 21, 1929): "Here is one of the most novel cartoon subjects ever shown on a screen. Here we have a bunch of skeletons knocking out the laughs on their bones, and how. They do a xylophone number with one playing the tune on the other spine. All takes place in a graveyard, and it is a howl from start to finish, with an owl and a rooster brought in for atmosphere."[6]

In 1994, The Skeleton Dance was voted #18 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field.[7]

Release
To attract a national distributor for the Silly Symphony series, Walt and Roy Disney arranged for The Skeleton Dance to run at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles and at the Fox Theatre in San Francisco in June 1929, while Pat Powers arranged for it to play at New York's Roxy Theatre from July. In early August, Columbia Pictures agreed to distribute the Silly Symphonies, and The Skeleton Dance played as a Columbia release in September at the Roxy, making it the first picture in the theater's history to have a return engagement.[1]

In March 1931, The New York Times reported that the film had been banned in Denmark for being "too macabre".[8]

Home media

The soundtrack was released on vinyl in 2016.
The short was released on December 4, 2001, on Walt Disney Treasures: Silly Symphonies - The Historic Musical Animated Classics[9][1] and on December 2, 2002, on Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Black and White.[10] It was included as a bonus feature on the Diamond Edition Blu-ray of 2009 of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was released to Disney+ on July 7, 2023.[11]

In other media
The Skeleton Dance appears in the 2012 video game Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two as an unlockable short.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skeleton_Dance

Sure! Here's the translation of the text:

**Description by Hans Christian Andersen**

"Life is like the lamp, which also starts burning out as soon as it is lit! As old as each of you is, that’s how many years I’ve been dancing with you. Everyone has their own steps, and some can last longer in the dance than others. But the lights go out at dawn, and then you all fall tired into my arms – this is called dying."

– Hans Christian Andersen: The Early Travel Pictures.

The oldest record of a Dance of Death in Germany is the manuscript Cpg 314 in the University Library of Heidelberg. Here, German translations were added to Latin verses, which likely originate from the 14th century. In their monumental form, the Dance of Death murals painted on the walls of Wengen Monastery in Ulm (around 1440) and in the two Dominican convents in Basel were the pioneers. One of the largest known Dance of Death murals was created during the Berlin plague epidemic of 1484 in the Marienkirche (Berlin-Mitte). It is also the oldest surviving literary work from Berlin. Additional wall paintings with Dance of Death motifs from this era are found in Metnitz (Austria), Hrastovlje (Slovenia) with frescoes by Johannes de Castua, over six meters long, which were discovered by Marijan Zadnikar, and Beram (Croatia). A number of Dance of Death murals are also preserved in Lombardy, such as in Clusone and Bienno. However, the typical composition of the image deviates from those common in Germany and France, as the events are depicted in large, two-part frescoes: the upper part shows the Triumph of Death, and the lower part depicts a dance scene, similar to that in La Chaise-Dieu.
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totentanz

Here’s the translation of the second part:

**Since the mid-16th century, the images of the Dance of Death were increasingly reproduced, while the verses changed or were entirely omitted, and eventually, both the images and the verses were completely reimagined.**

Initially, the Dance of Death from Grossbasel was also copied in Kleinbasel (not before the mid-15th century), with the number and arrangement of the dancing pairs remaining the same.

At the beginning, a priest and a bone house were added, and at the end, the fall of man was included, while the concluding figure of the painter may have been added only later by Hans Hug Kluber, who restored the image in 1568. He took this motif from Niklaus Manuel's Bernese Dance of Death, created between 1516 and 1520. When the cemetery wall was demolished in 1805, the original was lost except for a few fragments; however, reproductions along with the rhymes have survived, notably in the drawings of Emanuel Büchel (in Hans Ferdinand Maßmann: *Literature of the Dance of Deaths*, Leipzig 1841 (reprinted by Olms, Hildesheim 1963)). The “Death of Basel,” which became a popular proverb, spurred new representations, although poetic works entirely abandoned the theme.

Thus, Duke Georg of Saxony commissioned, as late as 1534, a stone relief of 24 life-sized human figures and three figures of death along the wall of the third floor of the Georgentor (named after him). This relief did not feature a dance or pairs of dancers and was entirely new and unique in both its concept and arrangement. This artwork was severely damaged in the great palace fire of 1701 but was restored and transferred to the cemetery in Dresden-Neustadt. It is now located in the Dreikönigskirche in Dresden (illustrated in Nanmann (correctly: Naumann): *"Death in All Its Relations,"* Dresden 1844).

Here’s the translation of the final part:

**The depiction in Basel influenced the painting with the Dance of Death created in the 15th century in the Strasbourg Preacher Church, which shows various groups, each of which the Death pulls to the dance. This is illustrated in Edel: *"The New Church in Strasbourg,"* Strasbourg 1825. The Dance of Death in the tower hall of the Marienkirche in Berlin, dating from 1470 to 1490, is also from this period (published by W. Lübke, Berlin 1861, and by Th. Prüfer, also in Berlin, 1876).**

A true Dance of Death was painted by Niklaus Manuel between 1514 and 1522 on the churchyard wall of the Predigerkloster in Bern. The 46 images, now only available in reproductions, are independent but recall both the Basel Dance of Death and the aforementioned "doten dantz mit figuren" (Dance of Death with figures).

The Dance of Death then took on a new and artistic form through Hans Holbein the Younger. In his work, Holbein not only sought to illustrate how death spares neither age nor social status, but also how it intervenes directly into the professions and pleasures of earthly life. Thus, he had to abandon the idea of a dance or dancing pairs and instead produced self-contained images with the necessary props, true "Imagines mortis" (images of death), as his drawings for woodcuts (by the woodcutter Hans Lützelburger) were called. These began to appear in large quantities in 1530 and were published as a book in 1538, under various titles and copies, edited among others by Wenzel Hollar (a short version with 30 engravings) and a new edition by F. Lippmann in Berlin, 1879. Holbein’s "Initial Letters with the Dance of Death" and a "Dance of Death Alphabet" from 1525 were reissued in after-cuts by Lödel and published by Adolf Ellissen in 1849.

From the fact that Hulderich Frölich, in his 1588 book *"Zween Todtentäntz, deren der eine zu Bern, der andre zu Basel etc."* (Two Dances of Death, one in Bern, the other in Basel, etc.), largely added images from Holbein's woodcuts to the Dance of Death at the Predigerkirchhof, and that Christian von Mechel included them as the first volume in his 1780 reproductions of Holbein's works under the title *"Le Triomphe de la Mort"* (47 etchings after Holbein’s woodcuts), arose the mistaken belief that the older, actual Dance of Death at the Predigerkloster was also a work by Holbein and that Holbein’s *"Imagines"* should also be called a Dance of Death.

Fading sunflower

Christian Luycks, "A Vanitas Still Life with Musical Instruments, Sheet Music, Books, a Skeleton, Skulls, and Armor,"
c. 1655

in the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH), Houston, Texas

Christian Luycks, "A Vanitas Still Life with Musical Instruments, Sheet Music, Books, a Skeleton, Skulls, and Armor,"
c. 1655

in the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH), Houston, Texas

ALT: 66 MÈTRES

Rooted Light

Heritage Path

Silent Echo

Timeless Bond

Rooted Light

Heritage Path

Silent Echo

Timeless Bond

Wurzellicht

Erbpfad

Stiller Klang

Vermächtnis Bogen

In het kader van de afsluiting van de Vanitas-expositie over Andy Warhol in Schunck speelt Bettie Serveert een uniek concert waarin het twee sets in volledige bezetting speelt: één keer een eigen keuze aan favoriete Velvet Underground nummers, aangevuld met een selectie eigen nummers van een van 's Nederlands beste indierockbands ooit.
Bettie Serveert werd begin jaren ‘90 opgericht in Amsterdam door Carol van Dyk, Peter Visser, Herman Bunskoeke en Berend Dubbe. De bandnaam betekent is geïnspireerd op de Nederlandse tennisspeelster Betty Stöve. Hun debuutalbum Palomine (1992) werd een groot succes en bracht hen internationale bekendheid.

In het kader van de afsluiting van de Vanitas-expositie over Andy Warhol in Schunck speelt Bettie Serveert een uniek concert waarin het twee sets in volledige bezetting speelt: één keer een eigen keuze aan favoriete Velvet Underground nummers, aangevuld met een selectie eigen nummers van een van 's Nederlands beste indierockbands ooit.
Bettie Serveert werd begin jaren ‘90 opgericht in Amsterdam door Carol van Dyk, Peter Visser, Herman Bunskoeke en Berend Dubbe. De bandnaam betekent is geïnspireerd op de Nederlandse tennisspeelster Betty Stöve. Hun debuutalbum Palomine (1992) werd een groot succes en bracht hen internationale bekendheid.

In het kader van de afsluiting van de Vanitas-expositie over Andy Warhol in Schunck speelt Bettie Serveert een uniek concert waarin het twee sets in volledige bezetting speelt: één keer een eigen keuze aan favoriete Velvet Underground nummers, aangevuld met een selectie eigen nummers van een van 's Nederlands beste indierockbands ooit.
Bettie Serveert werd begin jaren ‘90 opgericht in Amsterdam door Carol van Dyk, Peter Visser, Herman Bunskoeke en Berend Dubbe. De bandnaam betekent is geïnspireerd op de Nederlandse tennisspeelster Betty Stöve. Hun debuutalbum Palomine (1992) werd een groot succes en bracht hen internationale bekendheid.

In het kader van de afsluiting van de Vanitas-expositie over Andy Warhol in Schunck speelt Bettie Serveert een uniek concert waarin het twee sets in volledige bezetting speelt: één keer een eigen keuze aan favoriete Velvet Underground nummers, aangevuld met een selectie eigen nummers van een van 's Nederlands beste indierockbands ooit.
Bettie Serveert werd begin jaren ‘90 opgericht in Amsterdam door Carol van Dyk, Peter Visser, Herman Bunskoeke en Berend Dubbe. De bandnaam betekent is geïnspireerd op de Nederlandse tennisspeelster Betty Stöve. Hun debuutalbum Palomine (1992) werd een groot succes en bracht hen internationale bekendheid.

In het kader van de afsluiting van de Vanitas-expositie over Andy Warhol in Schunck speelt Bettie Serveert een uniek concert waarin het twee sets in volledige bezetting speelt: één keer een eigen keuze aan favoriete Velvet Underground nummers, aangevuld met een selectie eigen nummers van een van 's Nederlands beste indierockbands ooit.
Bettie Serveert werd begin jaren ‘90 opgericht in Amsterdam door Carol van Dyk, Peter Visser, Herman Bunskoeke en Berend Dubbe. De bandnaam betekent is geïnspireerd op de Nederlandse tennisspeelster Betty Stöve. Hun debuutalbum Palomine (1992) werd een groot succes en bracht hen internationale bekendheid.

In het kader van de afsluiting van de Vanitas-expositie over Andy Warhol in Schunck speelt Bettie Serveert een uniek concert waarin het twee sets in volledige bezetting speelt: één keer een eigen keuze aan favoriete Velvet Underground nummers, aangevuld met een selectie eigen nummers van een van 's Nederlands beste indierockbands ooit.
Bettie Serveert werd begin jaren ‘90 opgericht in Amsterdam door Carol van Dyk, Peter Visser, Herman Bunskoeke en Berend Dubbe. De bandnaam betekent is geïnspireerd op de Nederlandse tennisspeelster Betty Stöve. Hun debuutalbum Palomine (1992) werd een groot succes en bracht hen internationale bekendheid.

In het kader van de afsluiting van de Vanitas-expositie over Andy Warhol in Schunck speelt Bettie Serveert een uniek concert waarin het twee sets in volledige bezetting speelt: één keer een eigen keuze aan favoriete Velvet Underground nummers, aangevuld met een selectie eigen nummers van een van 's Nederlands beste indierockbands ooit.
Bettie Serveert werd begin jaren ‘90 opgericht in Amsterdam door Carol van Dyk, Peter Visser, Herman Bunskoeke en Berend Dubbe. De bandnaam betekent is geïnspireerd op de Nederlandse tennisspeelster Betty Stöve. Hun debuutalbum Palomine (1992) werd een groot succes en bracht hen internationale bekendheid.