Der Kilbepfeiffer

(The Piper)

 

Der Todten-Tantz

Illustrated by an unidentified Renaissance artist

 

 

 

Complete Image

 

Single Greeting Card (with matching Envelope)

Code: GS TT25 SGC
Price: US$5.00

Image detail (for reference)

Reproduction on 8x12" sheet

Code: GS TT25 8x12
Price: US$30.00

Reproduction on 10x15" sheet

Code: GS TT25 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 Piper, this illustration is associated traditionally with the text

shown below.

 

 

Death to the Piper:

Which dance are we going to have?

"The Beggar" or "Black Boys"?

My carvinal-Hans, The play would not be complete,

If you, too, were not in this dance.

 

The Piper:

No church fair was so far away,

That I did not earn from it.

Not it is over, I am obliged to go away,

The fife has fallen from me into the dirt.