# Dance of Death: The Sailor

- By: Hans Holbein the Younger (German, active England and Switzerland, 1497/98–1543)
- Date: c. 1526
- Medium: woodcut
- Classification: Print
- Culture: Germany
- Credit line: Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/1929.163)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1929.163/1929.163_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Dance of Death is the most celebrated series of woodcuts designed by Holbein. The forty-one blocks were cut by Hans Lützelburger in the years immediately before his death in 1526, though the set was not published until 1538. Dance of Death originated as a drama in the middle of the 14th century. Following widespread epidemics such as the black plague, these plays took place in a cemetery or churchyard. Actors, dressed in pale costumes painted to resemble skeletons, personified Death and summoned a group of people from all social classes in a dancelike procession. In a period when the life span was short, the purpose of the Dance of Death was to remind the populace to prepare for the Last Judgement.