Excerpt from A Collection of Works Illustrative of the Dance of Death in the Library of George Edward Sears: La Danse Macabre, Les Images De La Mort, Imagines Mortis, Le Triomphe De La Mort, Icones Mortis, Der Todten Tanz; With Photographie Reproductions of Rare and Curious Title-Pages and Plates Selected Therefrom While these numerous frescoes and sculptures were all more or less varied in design, the same ruling idea permeated all, namely, Death as a. Skeleton, but full of life and frolic, in the act of leading all the different ranks and conditions of mankind, and most frequently in the attitude of a dancing, lively motion. In some cases, verses of a religious and moral character were painted underneath. No reliable testimony has thus far been given, not any records found, by which it can be known who the artists were who first executedthese frescoes. There is certain evidence, however, that one Klauber, an eminent painter of Basle, in the year 1568 restored those in the church of that city most skillfully, and added two to the series, one being a portrait of himself, and the other of his wife and child, with the skeleton introduced in each. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.