The Miser, from the Dance of Death
Original title: The Miser, from the Dance of Death
kurzbeschreibung
A miser recoils in fright from a skeleton that thrusts a dish of coins toward him, as set down in Wenceslaus Hollar's etching of 1651, printed in the late eighteenth century. The sheet belongs to a series on the Dance of Death and drives home the inescapability of dying.
Description
At the left stands a man in medieval dress, arms flung wide, his face contorted with fear and turned upward. Before him on a table lie coins, a pouch and a small casket — his wealth. Beside him at the right, a skeleton holds out a bowl of coins as if taunting him. A barred window behind recalls a prison cell, and a small figure appears in one opening. The layout is lopsided: the man to the left, the skeleton to the right, their exchange pushed to the middle.
Context
Hollar made this etching as part of a series on the Dance of Death, an allegorical theme widespread in the seventeenth century. The miser as a sinner who resists death belongs to a moralizing Renaissance tradition that invokes the transience and vanity of earthly goods. Etching allowed fine lines that could render textures in detail and produce dramatic effects of light.
Impact
Oppressive is the direct confrontation between human despair and the skeleton's unshaken presence. Fine hatching and clear lines draw the eye to the figures' gestures and heighten the sense of threat and dead end.
Technique
An etching, in the second of four states, printed on paper. Etched lines and hatching model contours, shadows and textures; the black-and-white print stresses the contrasts.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)