Fred Wurlitzer

Hans Holbein's Dance of Death Fred Wurlitzer

Hans Holbein the Younger was born sometime during the winter of 1497-8 in Augsburg and died in 1543 in London during the winter of Plague. His Dance of Death is perhaps the first truly work of the horror genre so popular today, unless one mistakenly considers the biblical Revelation, also known as the Apocalypse of John, as the first horror work. Holbein saw death all around him coming to people of all classes and professions. Death seemed non-discriminating during the Plague. My Ogden Nash-like doggerel reflects our time. Holbein did a wonderful job of being sarcastic and morbid in his woodcuts for his time. He was a master portrait painter who used the horror genre well in his Dance of Death.