La danse macabre nouvelle

La danse macabre nouvelle, first printed in 1485 by Guy Marchant, is perhaps the closest reproduction of the Parisian cemetery mural in which dance of death imagery first appeared—most notably, the illustrations include the arcade from the architectural setting as a framing device. The text, also derived from the cemetery mural, is a dialogue wherein death indicates the inevitability of the dance while the protagonists variously bemoan their poorly spent lives and loss of material gain. The printed editions include a dance for men followed by a separate dance for women, each introduced with skeletons playing musical instruments. Produced four decades later, Holbein and Lützelburger’s illustrations would retain the skeletal musicians but intermingle men and women.