The three living and the three dead

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Mary of Burgundy and her two companions pursued three dead on the hunt .

The three living and the three dead is a legend that has been found in many European countries in small variations since the 11th century and describes the meeting of three living with three dead. The representation of the figures as well as the saying of the dead to the living varies. The French type usually shows young noblemen and, opposite them, three skeletons hunting. In the Italian type, on the other hand, a hermit leads the young men to the corpses lying in their coffins.

The origin of the saying of the dead, which emphasizes the futility of earthly life, is ascribed to Arabic poetry. The Arab poet ʿAdī b. Zayd, as he rode past graves with the king of Hira (around 580 AD), the dead call out to the king:

“We were what you are;
But the time
will come, and it will come to you quickly,
where you will be what we are. "

Like the dance of death and the triumph of death, the motif symbolizes the medieval warning word Memento mori . A simultaneous depiction of the topoi is common, for example in the fresco “Triumph of Death” by Francesco Traini from the mid-fourteenth century, in which the three living and the three dead are depicted. The legend was also integrated into the dance of death in Kientzheim .

Fresco in the church of Tuse - meeting of three mounted and three dead kings (around 1460–80)

A fresco from the Isefjord workshop in the church of Tuse (Denmark) from the 15th century shows three mounted kings on the hunt, three dead kings meet them, from which maggots and worms escape. These are each assigned banners. On the one of the first dead one reads: "Vos qui transitis n (os) t (r) i me (m) ores rogo sitis" (You who pass by, I ask you: Remember us), on the one of the second: "Quod sumus hoc eritis ”(What we are now, you are to become one day) and on that of the third:“ Fuimus aliquando quod estis ”(We were once what you are now). Above their heads you can read: "Heu qua (n) tus est noster dolor" (Oh, our pain is great).

A fresco on the north wall of the ruins of Knockmoy Abbey in Ireland depicts the three dead and three living kings, with the caption: “We have been as you are, you shall be as we are”. The three dead kings, also known under the Latin title “De Tribus Regibus Mortuis” or as “The three living and the three dead”, is a Middle English poem from the 15th century. It is found in the manuscript MS Douce 302 and its authorship is sometimes attributed to the Shropshire priest, John Audelay (d. 1426) of Haughmond Abbey.

In Germany, images of this legend have been preserved in the Badenweiler Pauluskirche , the parish church of the Assumption of Mary in Cham, the pilgrimage church of the Assumption of Mary in Eriskirch, the Church of St. Jodokus in Überlingen and in the Holy Spirit Church in Wismar; in Switzerland in the St. Eusebius chapel in Breil / Brigels and in the St. Martin auf Kirchbühl in Sempach.

literature

Web links

Commons : The three living and the three dead  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Miniature "The three living and dead" from the: "Berlin Book of Hours of Maria of Burgundy and Maximilians", 1480-82, Kupferstichkabinett Berlin , Hs. 78 B 12, fol. 220v; Description of the miniature in the graphics portal of the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin . accessed on February 3, 2020; See also: Article on the “Berlin Book of Hours of Maria of Burgundy and Emperor Maximilians”. (PDF) In: Journal für Kunstgeschichte 3 , 1999, Issue 4. Ed .: HEIJOURNALS - Heidelberger OJS-Journals , p. 364, accessed on January 23, 2020.
  2. ^ Karl Künstle: The legend of the three living and the three dead and the dance of death . Herdersche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Freiburg im Breisgau 1908 ( digitized version (PDF) [accessed on January 17, 2014]).
  3. ↑ Henrik Schovsbo, translation: Sten Rasmussen: Tuse Church . Tuse Meninhedsråd, Tuse 1997.
  4. ↑ Tuse Kirke (PDF; 6.5 MB) In: IV, bind 1 (1979), Side: 587-617 . National Museum - Danmarks Kirker. Retrieved December 2, 2012.
  5. ↑ Hans Georg Wehrens: The dance of death in the Alemannic language area. "I have to do it - and don't know what" . Schnell & Steiner publishing house, Regensburg, 2012, pp. 25ff.