Rentz’s Todentanz

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A post for Día de los Muertos. The 16th-century Dance of Death by Hans Holbein the Younger has been copied and adapted many times, often with results that add little to the original. These engravings by Michael Heinrich Rentz (1701–1758) from Der Sogenannte Todentanz (1767) feature some impressive compositions, the subject being the traditional one of Death in skeletal form bearing all and sundry to the grave. They may lack the vigour of Holbein’s series but they compensate with a wealth of fine detail. Browse the rest of the book here or download it here.

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