The "Dance of Death" was originally a type of spectacular play performed in the Middle Ages. Epidemics, such as the Black Death, were so frequent and so destructive at that time that the subject became a popular theme for the engraver. Rentz's engravings are dramatic scenes enclosed in complex baroque frames. No. 17 - Die Kayserin and No. 19 - Die Konigin. These scenes show two royal ladies, both being stalked by Death in the form of a bare skeleton; one as a bowing gallant, the other as the Grim Reaper with a scythe.
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Condition: A
Excellent, dark impressions with delicate hand coloring. Some soil at margins.