In the late middle ages and early renaissance dances of death were a popular art
form. Despite important differences in outlook, the moral messages of these art forms and of
modern analyses of socioeconomic inequalities in mortality overlap considerably. This theme
has survived in modern dances of death, which are popular in certain parts of Europe,
especially in Germany and other German speaking countries in central Europe, and are clearly
inspired by the late medieval and early renaissance examples. In the modern dances of death,
however, unlike their historical counterparts, social critique (crtiticism of social
inequality) is almost absent, although they include representations of differences between
people in social position. Remarkably, references to socioeconomic inequalities in
mortality, which have been documented extensively, are also uncommon in the modern examples.
This raises important questions about public perception of social inequality in general and
socioeconomic inequalities in mortality in particular, and it suggests that modern Western
society has not developed the cultural means of conveying the moral message that follows
from research into socioeconomic inequalities in health.
Dances of death were once
an immensely popular art form throughout Europe.(1-7) The two most common types were
mural paintings in churches or cemeteries and wood cuts in books. Some of the mural
paintings can still be found, especially in France (where they are called danses
macabres) and in the German speaking part of central Europe (Totentanze). The most
important British example was a mural painting in Pardon Churchyard, near St Paul's
Cathedral in London. This was an imitation of one of the earliest and most famous dances of
death, the now lost danse macabre of the Saints Innocents cemetery in Paris, which was
painted in 1424-5. The London version was executed by an unknown painter around 1430 and
destroyed in 1549. Only the poems, translations from the French by the monk and poet John
Lydgate, were preserved.(2) A few other British dances of death have partially
survived-for example, the one at Hexham Abbey.
Fig 1 - "Death and the Monk, Death and the Usurer:" one of
Guyot Marchant's wood cuts (published 1485). In the poems accompanying the wood cuts (not
reproduced) the monk admits that he has not done enough penance for his sins, and the usurer
is reproached for his avarice. Reproduced with permission from Kaiser(7)
These dances of death usually consisted
of a series of poems illustrated by a procession of the living and dead. The order in which
the living are portrayed follows their social standing, and all are accompanied by a corpse
or skeleton (fig 1). In the dialogue between the living and dead, which is represented in
the poems, the dead point out the sins which the living have committed, and the living are
then forced to join them in a dance-a euphemism for death. "Sagt Ja Sagt Nein, Getanzt
Muess Sein" ["Whether you say yes or no, you must dance"] is the motto of a dance of
death painted in Fuessen, southern Bavaria, in 1602.
The genre
was probably invented by a Dominican monk, somewhere in the fourteenth century and was
intended as an illustrated sermon summoning the faithful to do penance for their sins before
suffering an untimely death.(4)(5)(7)(8) This call was directed
at people of all ranks, not only because all men are mortal but also because, according to
the belief of the time, higher demands would be made of higher placed people at the Last
Judgment.(7)
Social inequality then and now: dances of death and occupational
mortality statistics
In their representation of the social hierarchy dances of death
offer an interesting view of the perception of social stratification in late medieval and
early renaissance times.(9)(10) The box shows the social hierarchy of the
London "Daunce of Machabray." The basic structure is one in which religious and secular
positions alternate, but Lydgate has added a few characters to the original which introduce
irregularities (princess, abbess, gentlewoman, tregetour [fool], juror).(2) In a
sense, these dances of death prefigure modern occupational mortality statistics, such as the
decennial supplements on occupational mortality in England and Wales.(11) Of course,
the structure of society has changed dramatically, but social inequality, largely based on
occupational achievement, is still a penetrating characteristic of society. Furthermore, in
the dances of death each occupation had its characteristic sins, and these in a way
correspond to the occupational mortality risks identified in modern statistics.
Below the
vaguely similar surface, however, there are profound differences. The most important is that
occupational mortality statistics are compiled to highlight differences, whereas dances of
death argued the equality of all in the face of death. The latter was primarily understood
in an existential sense, but the executors of these works of art probably also had no
awareness at all of inequality in the risk of dying prematurely. Even if the authors of
dances of death had known that mortality was lower among the rich than among the poor, as it
is now,(12-14) they probably would not have cared. They were concerned with the
afterlife, and who would care about a few years more or less of life expectancy in the face
of a choice between an eternal stay in heaven or in hell?
At this deeper
level of understanding, however, one is again struck by a certain similarity. In dances of
death the equality of all before death is used as an exhortation to do penance for one's
sins, and, consequently, to carry out acts of mercy and not to abuse one's social position.
Often, therefore, elements of criticism of social inequality-in short, social critique-are
included, in which those who hold high social positions, such as the rich and the powerful,
are criticised vigorously for their lack of concern for the poor and the weak. This moral
message may even have helped to mitigate the effects of social inequality.(7)
(10)(15) Likewise, occupational mortality statistics have been used to show the
existence and even widening of the mortality gap between rich and poor(16)(17)
and to argue the defects of a society in which those who have less of everything also die
younger.
| Order of social positions in Lydgate's dance of death for St Paul's, London |
| Pope; emperor; cardinal; king; patriarch; constable; archbishop; baron; princess; bishop; squire; abbott; abbess; bailiff; astonomer (addressed "master"); burgess; canon secular; merchant; carthusian; sergeant; monk; usurer and poor man; physician; amorous squire; gentlewoman; man of law; Mr John Rykill, tregetour [fool]; person [parson]; juror; minstrel; labourer; friar minor; child; young clerk; hermit
Source: Kurtz.(1) |
Survival of death dances and disappearance of social critique
Death,
the great leveller
Late medieval and early renaissance dances of death, with their images
of grimacing skeletons and cadavers with slit bellies inflicting death on their victims with
cruel or ironical gestures, have captured artists' imaginations throughout the centuries. As
late as the nineteenth and even in the twentieth century many works of art have been made
which clearly were inspired by dances of death. These range from drawings, wood cuts, and
paintings to plays, operas, and instrumental music.(18)(19) Sometimes the
artist cites the death dance theme only subtly, but sometimes complete modern versions of
dances of death have been created-for example, Grieshaber's cycle of wood cuts entitled
Totentanz von Basel (1966)(20) and Honegger's instrumental work Danse
Macabre (1939).Often these modern dances of death include representations of different
social positions, but social critique is quite rare-probably rarer than in late medieval
and early renaissance dances of death. It is also amazing that references to socioeconomic
inequalities in mortality, which have been frequently documented for more than a century,
are almost completely lacking.
The theme was and is particularly popular in Germany and
other German speaking countries in central Europe. The survival of the death dance theme in
these countries is probably at least partly due to the experience of two world wars. Many
artists have used and transformed a traditional dance of death to express their horror for
the loss of so many innocent lives. After the second world war the threat of mass
destruction by nuclear warfare inspired several artists to create a dance of death. Death
here is still the great equaliser: nobody, whatever his or her social position, escapes the
ravages of war. Not surprisingly, most of the time no social critique is implied at all, and
it is only for the sake of visual clarity that the representation of some social positions
may include references to social inequality.
Fig 2 - Upper part of Gerd Arntz's linocut "Dodendans"
(1950). The blast of a nuclear explosion smashes a window and kills scientists (left) and
rulers (right). Reproduced with permission from Broos (21)
Gerd Arntz, a graphic artist from Germany
who has lived as an expatriate in the Netherlands since 1934, created his linocut
Dodendans in 1950 as a reaction to the Korean war.(21) It depicts the
devastating effects of nuclear warfare and portrays several social groups-namely,
scientists, rulers (fig 2), artists, traders, employees, and labourers. Although the
cartoon-like representation includes class conscious cliches such as a factory manager
studying his rising profits and a lackey sacrificing himself, it is unlikely that the artist
intended this as criticism of social inequality as such. There is criticism here, but it
relates to the role of scientists and rulers in creating and using the threats of nuclear
warfare.
Personal confrontation
with death
A second motif that often recurs in modern dances of death is personal
confrontation with death. Many artists discovered the death dance theme after a personal
loss, such as the death of a father or mother, and have used the theme as a vehicle for
representing the experience of death in a person's life. Portraying death offers good
opportunities for projecting all kinds of properties to it-from cruelty to mercy, and from
being a sudden attacker to being a lifelong companion. Also, in the portraits of the people
who are taken away by death all the different reactions can be represented. Again, social
critique is almost never implied, and the artist may even refrain from portraying social
positions at all and choose to focus on different personal circumstances. If social
positions are portrayed, it is not important whether these are modern or antique: any
representation will do.
Fig 3 - Excerpt from "Der Basler Totentanz" (1990) by
Herwig Zens. Death asks the fool for a dance. Reproduced with permission from Herwig
Zens
Recently, an Austrian painter named Herwig Zens painted a
Basler Totentanz (1990), inspired like Grieshaber's by the dance of death that once
adorned the walls of the Dominicans' monastery in Basle (created around 1445, destroyed
1805). Figure 3 reproduces a part of this huge cycle of paintings. The main message of this
dance of death seems to relate to the cruelty of death, and to depict this the old social
positions apparently seemed good enough.
Social conditions
and death
Fig 4 -Wood cut from "Ein neuer Totentanz in achtzehn
Bilder" (A new dance of death in 18 pictures)(1904) by Jentzsch. Death, disguised as a
building speculator, witnesses a fatal accident at a construction site and says: "Now you
have your day off." Reproduced with permission from the Graphiksammlung "Mensch und Tod"
of the Heinrich-Heine-Universitat in Dusseldorf, Germany
It is only in the modern dances of death that have been inspired by a third
motif that one sometimes finds elements of straightforward social critique. In several
nineteenth and twentieth century versions of the dance of death the artists have tried to
bring out the connection between a person's behaviour or living conditions and his or her
death. Late nineteenth and early twentieth century dances of death contain many simple,
perhaps even pathetic, examples of this. An infant living in miserable circumstances whom
death grabs from the cradle, death disguised as a building speculator witnessing a fatal
accident on a construction site (fig 4), a quarryman embraced by death in his stone
pit-these examples even suggest that the artists were aware of the link between material
living and working conditions and mortality and used it to emphasise their moral message on
social inequality.
Fig 5 - Death reproaches the playboy for chasing children and chamoises into the abyss. Beyond life, he whizzes right into the oil-polluted sea." Reproduced with permission from Moser and Modlmayr(22)
This awareness seems to have faded away again
during this century because more recent dances of death with this third motif refer only to
the behavioural or attitudinal characteristics of the people occupying various social
positions-the modern equivalent of the sins as they were represented in older dances of
death. An example can be found in the work of Fritz Moser and Hans-Jorg
Modlmayr. Their Totentanz (1964) consists of a series of 10 wood cuts, each
accompanied by a poem, and was made for a church in Emsdetten in Germany.(22) The
social positions portrayed include a playboy (fig 5), a girl, a married couple, a convict
and his judge, an army commander, war camp prisoners, and mothers. These do not represent
positions in the social stratification system of modern societies, and there can therefore
be no clearcut social critique in this dance of death. The criticism is of a different and
perhaps more subtle nature-for example, in the descriptions of the playboy (who is
reproached for the accidents and the environmental pollution he causes with his fast car),
the married couple (rich, happy, and self contained), and the convict and his judge (the
judge inflicts the death punishment on the convict, but because of his lack of mercy he will
himself be killed by the impersonation of death, which here seems to protect the weak). By
their behaviours and attitudes these people inflict death on others, but death turns against
them.
The moral of this history
My comparison of late medieval or early
renaissance dances of death with modern occupational mortality statistics has shown vague
similarities and profound differences. Despite all the differences in outlook, however, the
moral messages of both seem to overlap to a considerable degree. Unfortunately for those who
fight social inequality in our time the strong link with mortality which more than a century
of research has documented has never produced images as powerful as the old dances of death.
With the exception of some late nineteenth and early twentieth century dances of death,
modern versions largely ignore social inequality, let alone socioeconomic inequalities in
mortality. One wonders why: is it because social inequality has lost the spectacular
visibility which it still had in the nineteenth century? Is it impossible to translate the
more subtle forms of modern social inequality into powerful visual images? This seems
unlikely, because modern dances of death have successfully been used to express quite
abstract and complex messages. The lack of social critique is more likely to be because
among the cultural elites themes other than social inequality are perceived to be more
important. Over the past decade the threat of nuclear warfare has considerably diminished,
but political instability and destruction of the environment continue to be major concerns.
Also, self fulfilment is highly valued, and there is widespread awareness of the importance
of the microsocial environment and of behaviours and attitudes for health and wellbeing.
Much of this is just as strongly dependent on socioeconomic factors as material living and
working conditions-the only problem is that this connection is not nearly as easily
discerned by people in society. The lesson to be learnt is that it is of strategic
importance for those who pursue social equality to show the link between socioeconomic
factors and these other concerns.
Finally, it is likely that the lack of attention to
socioeconomic inequalities in mortality is also due to a lack of public awareness of this
phenomenon. Despite the repeated demonstration of these inequalities the general public in
most countries is still largely unaware. This may be an important impediment to efforts to
reduce socioeconomic inequalities in health because these would require the involvement of
many sectors of society.(23) Developing a cultural means of conveying the moral
message which follows from research into socioeconomic inequalities in health could be
instrumental in raising public awareness. But where is the artist who is prepared to face
this challenge?
| Key messages |
| There is important overlap between the moral message of late medieval and early rennaissance dances of death and that of modern analyses of socioeconomic inequalities in mortality
In modern dances of death social critique has almost disappeared, and references to socioeconomic inequalities in mortality are rare
Modern Western society seems not to have developed the cultural means to convey the moral message which follows from research into socioeconomic inequalities in mortality |
I thank Dr E Schuster, Heinrich-Heine Universitat, Dusseldorf,
Germany, for help in obtaining some of the information and illustrations used in this paper.
Funding: None.
Conflict of interest: None.
Department of Public Health,
Erasmus University,
PO
Box 1738,
3000 DR Rotterdam,
Netherlands
Johan P Mackenbach,
professor
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