Get into the groove with these skeletons, perfect for fans of all things spooky, with this piece from Steph.

The Old Woman is one of three prints fromThe Dance of Death series in the Whitworth’s collection, the others being The Abbess and The Nun. The series is often said to have been designed by Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543) and transformed into woodcuts chiefly by the talented blockcutter Hans Lützelberger (1495-1526)- to whom the three woodcut prints from the series in our collection are attributed.

The danse macabre or dance of death was a concept expressed in visual art, music, poetry and through other means during the late Middle Ages and into the early modern period. It conveyed that, no matter one’s social status, death was the fate of all human beings and could sneak up on you at any moment. The titular character of The Old Woman accepts her fate rather serenely and allows herself to be led away by the skeletons representing death, unbothered by their presence and clutching what may be a rosary. She is far more accepting of death than the screaming abbess or the sinful nun in the other prints we have from the series, women who arguably should be better prepared for death than the old woman given their occupations. Their lack of piety might be interpreted as a criticism against those who were supposed to lead moral lives and devote themselves to God but instead abused their positions of power. The skeletons who guide the old woman are far more jovial and less sinister in appearance than the skeleton who sneaks up on the nun and the one who drags the abbess away. They’re doing a nice little jig as they guide the old woman along- or is it a monster mash?

The Old Woman was hand traced and transformed into a colouring sheet to be enjoyed as spooky season approaches. You can download a pdf. version of the colouring sheet below:

Happy Halloween! – Steph

Further reading

https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/holbeins-dance-of-death-the-16th-century-charlie-hebdo#:~:text=Created%20between%201524%20and%201526,%2C%20in%20modern-day%20Switzerland.

https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/library/files/special/exhibns/death/holbein.html

Erika Mary Boeckeler, Playful Letters: A Study in Early Modern Alphabetics (University of Iowa Press, 2017).