Der Narr

(The Fool)

 

Der Todten-Tantz

Illustrated by an unidentified Renaissance artist

 

 

 

Complete Image

 

Single Greeting Card (with matching Envelope)

Code: GS TT27 SGC
Price: US$5.00

Image detail (for reference)

Reproduction on 8x12" sheet

Code: GS TT27 8x12
Price: US$30.00

Reproduction on 10x15" sheet

Code: GS TT27 10x15
Price: US$50.00

 

 

 

This image carries no discernable monogram to support attribution to a particular artist, but in the context of the

appearance in a consolidated work related to Basle's "Dance of Death" and the style of the woodblock from which

the print derives, it is possible that the design is by Scharffenberg. At the very least, it is reasonable to attribute it to

a German artist productive during the mid-16th Century.

 

Depicting the exchange between Death and the Fool, this illustration is associated traditionally with the text

shown below.

 

 

Death to the Fool:

Well then Fool, you must now dance,

Prepare yourself and hurry up.

You may now leave your fool's bauble behind,

My dance will drive the sweat out of you.

The Fool:

Oh woe. I would rather carry firewood,

And be beaten up four times a day,

By my Lord and his servants.

Yet I must fight with this dry man.