Bernese dance of death

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In Bern there was a dance of death with pictures and accompanying verses by Niklaus Manuel Deutsch (around 1484–1530) on the monastery wall of the former Dominican monastery on the edge of the old town until 1660 . It is the first dance of death in the long history of this art form in which the artist is beyond doubt.

Origin and history

The Bernese Dance of Death was located on the southern wall of the Dominican monastery, by today's French Church . It is not clear whether it was painted inside or on the street side of the monastery wall; In any case, there was a wooden monopitch roof over the wall as weather protection. The painter of the dance of death and poet of the accompanying verses was the Bernese artist, poet and statesman Niklaus Manuel Deutsch, who depicted himself in the last picture of the dance of death. His coat of arms, his initials N * M * D and a small Swiss dagger with a bow as his signature can also be seen above this picture . The mural with a length of about 80 m was created between 1516 and 1519.

Because there are no written sources, it is assumed that most of those Bernese families could be considered as patrons and donors whose coats of arms and initials are depicted in the medallions above the individual scenes, especially since portraits of some of the figures could be proven.

Due to the effects of the weather, restoration work had to be carried out as early as 1553 and 1583, before the southern monastery wall was then torn down in 1660 to expand today's Zeughausgasse and the mural was completely destroyed. This handling of the most important work by the Bernese artist Niklaus Manuel was sharply criticized in the period that followed. The art historian Joachim von Sandrart wrote in 1670 that it was "just a shame that this great work, so in all parts of art, has been highly praised by those who understand and that this city's excellent fame is increased by a noticeable amount, that is, it is carelessly allowed to go to the bottom."

description

Dance of death scene, copy by Albrecht Kauw

However, the entire sequence of scenes and the accompanying verses can be reconstructed using a contemporary copy. Even before the destruction, the painter Albrecht Kauw , who came from Strasbourg and has lived in Bern since 1640, made gouache copies of both the dance of death cycle and the calligraphic script of the accompanying verses (1649). In the specialist literature, Albrecht Kauw is certified meticulously true to the work: “You can hardly rely on the rhythm and the colors alone and the sometimes pitiful facial features of the portrayed lack any empathy on the part of the copyist; there is no trace of the spirit of MANUELS to be felt ”(Luc Mojon) and“ the wall paintings are here taken up by the eye of a descendant already committed to the baroque sense of time and drawn by a clumsy hand that was guided by a less sensitive spirit ”( Paul Zinsli ) . By a lucky coincidence, a pen drawing by Manuel with the “Death of the Canon” has been preserved ( Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt ); a comparison with the corresponding “priest” scene in Kauw's copies shows the differences in the artistic design and thus the significance of the destroyed mural painting.

The entire cycle extended over the approx. 100 m long southern monastery wall; it consisted of two double pictures at the beginning and a preacher scene at the end (on framed wooden panels) as well as the actual dance of death as a mural with 21 picture fields. Each picture field was divided by two illusionistic painted arcades, supported by balluster-like columns that stood on a knee-high base wall. The lined up double arcades looked like an arcade with views of lovely landscapes, which contrasted strongly with the scenes “of life and death” in the foreground. The spandrels of each arcade had three round niche-like depressions, intended by the painter to hold the coats of arms and initials of the donors. In front of the parapet wall was natural ground with flowers and grass. Under the double arch of a 310 cm wide and 230 cm high image field there were two scenes with roughly life-size figures.

The sequence of scenes begins with the double images “Expulsion from Paradise” and “Moses receives the tablets of the Law” (panel I) as well as “Christ on the cross with Mary and death” and “concert of the dead in the ossuary ” (panel II); it ends with the “preacher” (Plate XXIV). These pictures are probably framed wooden panels that were added later, the picture layout and painting style differing from the pictures of the actual dance of death.

In the 41 scenes of the actual dance of death, Death dances with representatives of the individual estates in such a way that two pairs or groups act under a double arcade (with the exception of the Teutonic Knight Rudolf von Friedingen ). The death figures each lead the 13 clergy and the 26 representatives of the secular classes and at the end the pagans and the painter to the left towards the concert in the ossuary. In comparison with the dances of death in Grossbasel and Basel-Klingental, what is new here is that at the beginning of the 16th century the artist first had representatives of the clergy appear, followed by secular representatives. In Bern, the representatives of the clergy from the pope to the beguines dance first, followed by the representatives of the nobility from the emperor to the knight; It is followed by the three Doctores lawyer, advocate and doctor, then mayor, council and citizen and finally further representatives of the citizens, farmers and craftsmen, plus the painter with the group of "pagans" captured by him in the picture.

The picture sequences were commented on by dialogue verses composed by the painter Niklaus Manuel Deutsch. His quite independent texts, which are mainly based on the models from Basel (around 1440) and Heidelberg (1488), have been preserved in a copy by the Bern schoolmaster Hans Kiener (1576), which was printed in 1581 by Huldrich Frölich in Basel. It can be assumed that on the occasion of the restoration in 1553, the accompanying verses were also partially revised by the former priest and later schoolmaster Urban Wyss in line with the Reformation ideas.

meaning

Manuels self-portrait from the Bernese Dance of Death

As a special feature of Niklaus Manuel's dance of death, it should be emphasized that the representatives of the individual estates are no longer represented in a typified manner, but that individual representatives of the Bern estates have themselves depicted with their coat of arms. “Manuel's creative originality in the context of the genre consists in the consistent design of the dance of death into a splendid festival of the dead. The operatic luxury of the robes, the painterly delight in the decorative create a boastful self-portrayal of life. And it is precisely this that increases the intensity of the collision with partly malicious-teasing, partly aggressive-wild figures of death. It is fitting that the verses often exacerbate the socially critical tones of the genre in such a way that they threaten to go beyond the scope of the penitential sermon ”(Gert Kaiser).

The Bernese folklorist Paul Zinsli also praised the pictures and texts by Niklaus Manuel Deutsch: “Compared to all older people, the Bernese Dance of Death is filled and shaped by a different and grandiose spirit ... You can feel ... that an idiosyncratic and strong personality was at work, and This personal expression, above all, lifts our dance of death so impressively out of the convention and anonymity of the old painted and printed dance of death. "The Bernese dance of death by Niklaus Manuel Deutsch is the last large and monumental version of this medieval series of images about transience, which is widespread north of the Alps of human life.

literature

  • Luc Mojon: The former dance of death. In: The art monuments of the canton of Bern. Volume V (Die Kunstdenkmäler der Schweiz 58), Basel 1969, pp. 70 ff.
  • Paul Zinsli: The Bernese dance of death by Niklaus Manuel (around 1484–1530) in the replicas of Albrecht Kauw (1649). (= Bern homeland books. Volume 44/55). Bern 2, 1979 (with illustrations and inscriptions)
  • Gert Kaiser: The dancing death - medieval dances of death. Frankfurt am Main 1983, p. 330 ff. With texts
  • Reiner Sörries: Dance of the Dead - Dance of Death. Dettelbach 1998, p. 142 ff.
  • Urs Martin Zahnd: Niklaus Manuels Totentanz as a mirror of the Bernese society around 1500. In: Uli Wunderlich (ed.): L'Art Macabre 4 - Yearbook of the European Dance of Death Association Association Danses Macabres d'Europe Federal Republic of Germany eV Düsseldorf 2003, page 265 ff.
  • Christoph Mörgeli and Uli Wunderlich: Bernese dances of death - macabres from Bern from the Middle Ages to the present. Catalog, Bern 2006, p. 13 f. and 36 f.
  • Hans Georg Wehrens: The dance of death in the Alemannic language area. "I have to do it - and don't know what" . Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-7954-2563-0 , pp. 96 ff. And 203.

Remarks

  1. ^ Rudolf Riggenbach : The printer Huldrich Frölich [...]. In: Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Altertumskunde . Volume 58/59, 1959, pp. 215-229.