Dance of Death from Kientzheim

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In Kientzheim in Alsace , Haut-Rhin , there was an important dance of death until the French Revolution , the images and accompanying verses of which are only known today from a manuscript that was found again in the 19th century.

Creation and destruction

On the southern cemetery wall next to the Upper Church in Kientzheim near Kaysersberg, there used to be a dance of death from 1517 with a preacher scene, ossuary music and 27 dance couples in the usual classroom order. At the time of the French Revolution, the painting was whitewashed and in the 19th century the entire wall was torn down, completely destroying the dance of death.

Handwriting with description and accompanying verses

Fortunately, in 1897 a manuscript from the 16th century was found in the archive of the city of Kientzheim. It was entitled "Follow the dead Dantz, how he stoht to Köntzen him crosswalk" and contained the full text of the accompanying verses on 31 sheets and also a very precise description of the individual scenes and people in old Alsatian vernacular. So numerous details are known that the content and artistic quality of this lost work of art can be assessed according to the circumstances.

According to the description, the three-part cycle included: three introductory images, the actual dance of death with 25 scenes and two final images. The introductory pictures show a preacher on the stairs to the pulpit, followed by death with an hourglass and a cane, several skeletons with musical instruments in front of the ossuary and a corpse covered with worms in the open grave. The actual dance of death is followed by the images of three skeletons dressed up as piper, drumbeater and ensign with the fool, as well as an official woman or messenger who many people chase after.

The dancing couples appear in the following order (the musical instruments that Death has carried or played are in brackets):
1. Pope (harp), 2. Emperor (trumpet), 3. Cardinal, 4. Empress (lute), 5. King (Whistling), 6th bishop (organ), 7th duke (prongs), 8th count (hunting horn), 9th abbot (horn), 10th knight (army drum), 11th pastor (bell), 12th doctor ( Cot with bells), 13th barefoot monk (time bell), 14th mayor (lyre), 15th councilor (bell), 16th town clerk, 17th citizen (dulcimer), 18th forest brother, 19th usurer (bagpipes), 20 Craftsman, 21st farmer, 22. Landsknecht, 23rd youth (shawm), 24th virgin (violin), 25th child, 26th fool (beaked pipe and drum), 27th official or messenger. It is noticeable that Stadtschreiber and Landsknecht only appear in the Kientzheim cycle, but not in other dance of death representations of this time.

The way in which the movements of the dance couples, the attributes of the dancers and the items of clothing are precisely described in the manuscript suggest that this dance of death must have been a high-quality work that echoes individual scenes of the Großbasler Totentanz reveals, and because of the musical instruments used by the death figures it is also reminiscent of the Heidelberg Totentanz of 1485/88; but the choice of words and expressions have become more gripping and critical than the verses of the 15th century.

meaning

The fact that such an artful dance of death was able to take place in Kientzheim is probably due to the influences of the then Bishop of Basel and the feudal lords. In addition, Kientzheim was a well-known place of pilgrimage in the 15th and 16th centuries, which Emperor Friedrich III. has visited.

But for what reason was a complete description with the accompanying verses made for someone who was obviously interested in the dance shortly after the creation of the dance of death, and how did this manuscript get back to Kientzheim? Reinhold Hammerstein tries to clarify these questions by pointing out the family relationships of the families of the Counts of Zimmer, the Counts of Lupfen and Baron Lazarus von Schwendi and their connection with Kientzheim. From 1435 Kientzheim belonged to the feudal lordship of the von Lupfen family, who sold it to Lazarus von Schwendi in 1563; he was married to Eleonora von Zimmer for the second time and was buried in Kientzheim in 1583. Wilhelm Wernher von Zimmer had married Katharina von Lupfen shortly after the Kientzheimer Dance of Death was created (1521) and, as an educated historian and poet, probably also got to know the new dance of death painting. His interest in its description and accompanying text can also be derived from preliminary studies for the dance of death that he wrote and drawn a short time later in Schloss Herrenzimmern. It is also conceivable that the manuscript he initiated was returned to Kientzheim after his death.

Legend of the "three living and the three dead"

On the north side of the Upper Church in Kientzheim, the wall paintings of the legend of the meeting of the three living and the three dead and of the seven works of mercy can still be found on the outer walls of the former Michael's chapel . These scenes, probably created around 1517 and later painted over, were uncovered again in 1886 and documented with photographs before they were restored in 1977. The artist Gérard Ambroselli commissioned to do this, however, transformed the fragmentary pictures of the Three Living and the Three Dead into a mural in the style of the 20th century. On the basis of the old photographs, the original version can at least approximately be reconstructed: The three living people approaching from the left unexpectedly encounter their long-dead ancestors. The living are not mounted and are not separated from the three dead by a cemetery cross. These two observations are unmistakable clues for the painting style common in Alemannic Alsace, while in contrast it was common within the borders of the Kingdom of France at that time for the living to approach with their horses and for the two groups of the living and the dead to go through Cemetery cross to be separated. The living are stately dressed; at least two of them have differently shaped crowns. The dead wrapped in shrouds are also crowned. A sequence of ages can be seen in the living: the first appears youthful, while the middle is older and has whiskers; the latter is apparently to be identified by clothing, scepter and chain of order as the highest rank of the nobles. Tangled banners can be seen above the figures, on which remnants of words in Alemannic could be read when they were rediscovered.

literature

  • Bruno Stehle: The Dance of Death from Kienzheim in Upper Alsace. Strasbourg 1899 (with a verbatim reproduction of the description of the images and all accompanying verses in the 16th century manuscript, which was burned during the Second World War).
  • André Herscher: La danse Macabre de Kientzheim, 1517 . In: Kaysersberg, Ammerschwihr, Sigolsheim, Kientzheim. Société d´Histoire de la Vallée de la Weiss. Annuaire 1991, pp. 75-94, and Annuaire 1992, pp. 39-54.
  • Reinhold Hammerstein : Dance and Music of Death - The medieval dances of death and their afterlife. Bern 1980, p. 88ff. and 212ff.
  • 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, pp. 119ff. and 154ff. ISBN 978-3-7954-2563-0 .
  • Ilona Hans-Collas: Kientzheim, Haut-Rhin, église paroissiale Notre-Dame , in: Blondaux / Caffin / Czerniak / Davy / Decottignies / Hans-Colas / Juhel / Leduc: Vifs nous sommes… Morts nous serons. La rencontre des trois morts et des trois vifs dans la peinture murale en France; Vendôme 2001, p. 112f.