Bernt Notke
Bernt Notke (; – before May 1509) was a late Gothic artist, working in the Baltic region. He has been described as one of the foremost artists of his time in northern Europe.
Life
Very little is known about the life of Bernt Notke. The No ...
. A fragment of the late fifteenth-century painting, originally some 30 meters (98.4 ft) wide, is displayed in the
St. Nicholas Church, Tallinn
St. Nicholas Church ( et, Niguliste kirik, german: Nikolaikirche) is a medieval church building in Tallinn (Reval), Estonia. It was dedicated to Saint Nicholas, the patron of the fishermen and sailors. Originally built in the 13th century, it wa ...
. It is regarded as the best-known and as one of the most valuable medieval artworks in Estonia. It is the only surviving medieval Dance Macabre in the world painted on canvas.
The Dance of Death theme is frequent in the art and literature of the late Middle Ages, where it functions as a
memento mori
''Memento mori'' (Latin for 'remember that you ave todie'St. Mary's Church in
Lübeck
Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...
. The Lübeck work was at the beginning of the 18th century in such a bad condition that a copy was made by the painter Anton Wortmann in 1701. This copy perished in 1942. According to most accounts, the painting was installed at the St. Nicholas church sometime around 1493-95.
The Tallinn version as preserved begins with the thirteenth figure; it is not certain how many figures the work originally depicted. Not recorded in the accounting records of St. Nicholas up to 1520 (with a first written reference from 1603), Notke's painting was most likely commissioned and paid for by private donors, a guild, or a brotherhood. It differs from the Lübeck original by its background and the content of its verses.
St. Nicholas Church in Tallinn was badly damaged in a Soviet air raid on the city on the evening of March 9, 1944; most of the valuable interior was destroyed. Fortunately the Danse Macabre as well as other priceless artworks (notably the
Hermen Rode
Hermen Rode (fl. c. 1468 – c. 1504) was a German Gothic painter.
Life and works
Very little is known about Rode. He lived and worked in Lübeck, and from 1468 owned a house on Johannisstrasse street in the city, implying a certain degree of ...
altar from 1478) were stored elsewhere as the air raids were anticipated.
The surviving fragment was restored in Moscow between 1962 and 1964 by P. Baranov, S. Globacheva, S. Titov, and G. Karlsen under the direction of V. Karaseva.