DANCE OF DEATH (DANSE MACABRE OR TOTEN TANZ)

http://resources.library.yale.edu/online/TheDanceOfDeath.pdf

http://german.about.com/library/bltotentanz.htm

Macabre:

1. having death as a subject : comprising or including a personalized representation of death
2. dwelling on the gruesome
3. tending to produce horror in a beholder

Origin of MACABRE

French, from danse macabre / dance of death, from Middle French (danse de) Macabré

Dance of Death

Danse Macabre (French)

Danza de la Muerte (Spanish)

Dansa de la Mort (Catalan)

Danza Macabra (Italian)

Dança da Morte (Portuguese)

Totentanz (German)

Dodendans (Dutch),

This is a folk-drama dance that originated in Medieval Europe. The subject of this traditional performance is the human condition, and in particular the end of human life. While it existed as the most ephemeral art-form, Dance, we see it also displayed through paintings and poetry. It precise origin is unknown, however verse dialogues between Death and each of his victims, came into existence shortly after the Black Death in Germany. These could have been performed as plays and as we have seen these initial proto-dramas might have morphed into a more substantial folk-drama dance.

We know that the term "danse macabre" was known and used before 1424 (i.e. even before the creation of the earliest known wall mural of the Dance Macabre in Cimetière des Innocents in Paris. In his poem entitled Respit de la Mort, Jean Lefevre writes:

Je fis de Macabre la danse,

Qui tout gent maine à sa trace

E a la fosse les adresse.

Some have suggested that that the poet had himself just escaped the Black Plague when he wrote this.

The Evolution of Western Conceptualizations of Death

It is worth considering how the skull and skeleton became emblems of death, and gruesome ones at that. It was not always so. During the early Christian centuries, before this religion came to dominate the Western mindset, the vision of “life/death” prevalent was one of a “carpe diem” philosophy where one is considered well advised to enjoy pleasures of the moment without too much concern for the future. Worrying about death only cut into the time one could enjoy life and so it was relatively unproductive. Epicureans adopted the earlier Greek philosopher Democritus’s view that the soul, whatever else it might be, was a physical collection of atoms that is dispersed at the death of the body. We need not fear death since “we” won’t be around to experience anything, good or bad. Epicurus and other classical thinkers had taught that “Death is nothing to us, for when death is we are not and when we are, death is not.” (For teaching that there is no afterlife Dante claimed they were confined to living graves in sixth circle of hell in his Inferno.) And while the Stoics taught that we each have a soul that will survive the death of the body, one should not presume this afterlife would include any of the pleasures (or pains) of the body. We will not actually take pleasure in this existence. Further, some suggests a loss of our individuality, a ‘cosmic recycling’ so to speak where we each mingling into the whole.

In antiquity, portrayals of death were generally benign. The Classical tradition continued into the early Christian Era. In most ancient Christian art, death is represented as the youth with the inverted torch carved on sarcophagi, but the custom died out. Death was represented as the brother of Sleep, “approaching mortals gently, but with swift pinions (bird like feathers).” (Thanatos/ Mors twin brother of Hypnos/ Somnus). In classical times the skeleton seen mostly as a comic figure. Even in the early Middle Ages, the skeleton is never found as a symbol of death. It does not appear to have that significance until the beginning of the 15th century.

Memento Mori

By the Late Medieval Period the attitude towards death was entirely different. The terrifying aspect was no longer softened or avoided, but deliberately emphasized. There developed a pronounced “MEMENTO MORI” philosophy: remember that you must die, a reminder of mortality. The phase has originated in the Roman Empire, but at that time is was a reminder to “gather ye rosebuds while ye may.” During the Middle Ages, far from a warning to take advantage of the pleasures the world has to offer us while we can, it became a warring to repent and resist temptations. During this time the skeleton and skull become awe-inspiring and/or repellent. They were symbols that even the illiterate masses could understand. Death is the inevitable leveler of us all. The most drastic means were used during this time to emphasis to the public the sense of the impermanence of the physical body and of all earthly things, in order to point a moral lesson: The body was not going to live forever; it was going to die.

It precise origin is unknown, however verse dialogues between Death and each of his victims, came into existence shortly after the Black Death in Germany. These could have been performed as plays and, as we have seen, these initial proto-dramas might well have morphed into a more substantial folk-drama dance. The festival/dance began a as a sort of parade or farandole. A dancer dressed, as a skeleton, represents “Death.” He begins his dance and then selects someone standing on the sidelines and anyone he selects is compelled to dance with him. This street festival type dance eventually became choreographed and stylized so those selected were actually dramatic representations of individuals or ranks in society. In its developed form, the first chosen came to be one dressed as the Pope (signified by his triple crown). Death would then select an emperor (signified by his sword and globe) and so on gathering members from all levels of society: (the usurer with his large purse) and the poor man (soliciting a loan). All succumb to Death. And this dramatic dance/drama is clear enough for an illiterate person to understand them. It also had the unsetting effect of mixing (in drama) the dead and the living, the movement of life and the stillness of death. This is remarkable when one considered that funerals are among the very few traditional ceremonies where there is no dancing.

The dance/dramatic form proceeded to visual representations in paintings, engravings and frescos. The selection of the skeleton as dancing death arose out of superstitions about the dead returning and being malevolent or foreboding. Unlike many other cultures were the dead are regarded as a source of protection and power, there developed a great fear of the dead, and dead bodies. This may have resulted from the plagues rampant in Europe at this time. Dead (or even sick) bodies were themselves the source of death. This surely gave them added negative associations.

In the 15th century, the commonest form of the Dance of Death representation was mural painting. Very few remain. The Middle Ages were regarded as the age of darkness and barbarism by the time of the Renaissance onward, so wall paintings of that period were thought of little importance and often painted over and/or otherwise destroyed. In the parts of Europe that became Protestant, these murals were covered over with whitewash or plaster, or destroyed. Paintings spared from destruction decayed from neglect, because constant renovation is required with mural painting. This is why we have few images left. Still, these representations must have been very prevalent for any to have survived at all.

The first poem represented living dancing with the dead is Jean Le Fevre’s “The Dance of Death” 1374 –a poem he wrote after experiencing and surviving the Plague. Scholars theorize that the tradition originated in France, but representations of the Danse Macabre can be found in England, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Italy and Spain. Careful study of the Paris “Danse Macabre,” concludes that the Dance came first, then pictorial representations and last poetry to explain the dance further. But note, the pictures and poetry only reassert the point that is was initially embodied in the dance. Arguably, these latter are not improved articulation of an understanding, only different. One might even claim that these are inferior for they distance death (rendering it merely conceptual). The actual Dance Macabre invites, indeed insists, on the participation of the viewer. Reading a poem about the great “Dance of Death” is something quite apart from being grasped by the hand of Death himself.

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

Something of the Memento Mori can be see today in the Mexican festival Day of the Dead, including the images of skull, skeletons and bones representing death and the dead.

Mexican engraver José Guadalupe Posada has created various works in which various walks of life are depicted as skeletons.