M — Maca ber (Part 6 of 6)

Macaber (The Dance) or the “Dance of Death” (Arabic, makabir, “a churchyard”). The dance of death was a favourite subject in the Middle Ages for wall-paintings in cemeteries and churches, especially in Germany. Death is represented as presiding over a round of dancers, consisting of rich and poor, old and young, male and female. A work descriptive of this dance, originally in German, has been translated into most European languages, and the painting of Holbein, in the Dominican convent at Basle, has a world-wide reputation. Others are at Minden, Lucerne, Lubeck, Dresden, and the north side of old St. Paul’s.