Dance of the Death

Bernt Notke's Dance of Death (Totentanz), created around 1463, is one of the most famous medieval representations of this macabre subject, depicting skeletal figures of Death leading people of all social stations in a grim procession. Notke, a Lübeck painter and sculptor, created monumental works throughout the Baltic region, and his Totentanz served as a powerful reminder of mortality's universal reach in a society repeatedly devastated by plague.

Notke's treatment combines the graphic, linear energy of late medieval Northern European painting with a vivid characterization of the social types, from pope and emperor to peasant, each paired with their skeletal dancing partner.