An unabridged reprint of the 1538 edition of Holbeins celebrated work, this theme was a popular one of the 16th century. In Holbeins` finely cut, highly detailed woodcuts, death is omnipresent. Stylised skeletons snatch people away in the prime of life, be they a child at its mother's breast or an old man. Skeletons play, tug and cavort throughout the book, around Kings, cardinals, sailors, nuns and pedlars, all shadowed by the emlematic skeletal figures of the dance. Besides the woodcuts the book contains a prefatory letter by Jean de Vauzele and various quotations, depictions and meditations on death, and the necessity of death in life.
Images: These are detailed small black and white woodcuts, 55 mm x 65mm on average, embedded within a page of authenically reproduced text (Latin and 16th Century French). An unabridged reprint of
Les Simulachres & histories faces de la mort. Dark, haunting, comic and unique.
Illustrations: 82 original illustrations.
Size: 127 x 203 mm
Copyright: Permission Free
