![]() ![]() The pictures were often accompanied by captions that made the messages even more unmistakable. Death did not discriminate between kings and commoners. The Dance of Death was one of the few egalitarian things in an hierarchical age. The victims look glum, or at least blankly resigned to their fate, while the skeletons are joyful and animated, eager for a jig. ![]() Typical artistic representations of the Dance of Death, found in wall paintings and book illustrations, featured the Pope, the Emperor, assorted cardinals and nobles, labourers, beggars, and usually a small child. Death did not discriminate between kings and commoners, priests and peasants. The Dance of Death was one of the few truly egalitarian things in a rigidly hierarchical age. One outlet was the Dance of Death – la Danse Macabre, der Totentanz – in which, at carnival time, people would dance around with characters dressed as skeletons. Rather than brooding on their fate, people embraced it in ways that provided a release from tension and anxiety. Other factors were the high rate of infant mortality and the primitive state of medicine.ĭeath was ever-present in a way that can hardly be conceived of today. The average life span from 1200-1300 was 43 years, but it fell to 24 years from 1300-1400 because of the Plague, which killed up to a third of the population in some regions. ![]()
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