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In works of art, the adjective macabre ( or ; ) means "having the quality of having a grim or

ghastly Ghastly may refer to: *"Ghastly" Graham Ingels, a comic book and magazine illustrator with EC Comic *Ghastly (DJ), American DJ from Los Angeles *Sir Graves Ghastly character created by Cleveland-born actor Lawson J. Deming (1913-2007) for the popu ...

atmosphere". The macabre works to emphasize the details and symbols of death. The term also refers to works particularly gruesome in nature.

History

Early traces of macabre can be found in Ancient Greek and Latin writers such as the Roman writer

Petronius Gaius Petronius Arbiter"Gaius Petronius Arbiter"
Satyricon'' (late 1st century CE), and the Numidian writer Apuleius, author of '' The Golden Ass'' (late 2nd century CE). During the Middle Ages, outstanding instances of macabre themes in

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

include the works of John Webster, Robert Louis Stevenson, Mervyn Peake, Charles Dickens,

Roald Dahl Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist, short-story writer, poet, screenwriter, and wartime fighter ace of Norwegian descent. His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide. Dahl has be ...

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Word ...

, and Cyril Tourneur. In

American literature American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition thus is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also inc ...

, authors whose work feature this quality include Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, and

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

. The word has gained its significance from its use in French as ''

la danse macabre LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...

'' for the allegorical representation of the ever-present and universal power of death, known in German as ''Totentanz'' and later in English as the ''Dance of the Dead''. The typical form which the allegory takes is that of a series of images in which Death appears, either as a dancing

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...

or as a shrunken shrouded corpse, to people representing every age and condition of life, and leads them all in a dance to the grave. Of the numerous examples painted or sculptured on the walls of cloisters or church yards through medieval Europe, few remain except in woodcuts and engravings. *The series at Basel originally at the Klingenthal, a nunnery in Little Basel, dated from the beginning of the 14th century. In the middle of the 15th century this was moved to the churchyard of the Predigerkloster at Basel, and was restored, probably by Hans Kluber, in 1568. The collapse of the wall in 1805 reduced it to fragments, and only drawings of it remain. * A ''Dance of the Dead'' in its simplest form still survives in the Marienkirche at Lübeck as 15th-century painting on the walls of a chapel. Here there are 24 figures in couples, between each is a dancing Death linking the groups by outstretched hands, the whole ring being led by a Death playing on a pipe. * In Tallinn (Reval), Estonia there is a well-known ''Danse Macabre'' painting by Bernt Notke displayed at St. Nikolaus Church (Niguliste), dating the end of 15th century. * At Dresden there is a sculptured life-size series in the old Neustädter Kirchhoff, moved here from the palace of Duke George in 1701 after a fire. * At

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...

in the cloister of St Maclou there also remains a sculptured ''danse macabre''. * There was a celebrated fresco of the subject in the cloister of Old St Pauls in London. *There was another in the now destroyed Hungerford Chapel at Salisbury, of which only a single woodcut, "Death and the Gallant", remains. *Of the many engraved reproductions of the Old St Pauls fresco, the most famous is the series drawn by Holbein. The theme continued to inspire artists and musicians long after the medieval period, Schubert's string quartet '' Death and the Maiden'' (1824) being one example, and

Camille Saint-Saëns Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (; 9 October 183516 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic music, Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Piano C ...

' tone poem Danse macabre, op. 40 (1847).
In the 20th century,

Ingmar Bergman Ernst Ingmar Bergman (14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007) was a Swedish film director, screenwriter, Film producer, producer and playwright. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time, his films are known ...

's 1957 film '' The Seventh Seal'' has a personified Death, and could thus count as macabre. The origin of this allegory in painting and sculpture is disputed. It occurs as early as the 14th century, and has often been attributed to the overpowering consciousness of the presence of death due to the

Black Death The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...

and the miseries of the

Hundred Years' War The Hundred Years' War (; 1337–1453) was a series of armed conflicts between the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England and Kingdom of France, France during the Late Middle Ages. It originated from disputed claims to the French Crown, ...

. It has also been attributed to a form of the Morality, a dramatic dialogue between Death and his victims in every station of life, ending in a dance off the stage. The origin of the peculiar form the allegory has taken has also been found in the dancing skeletons on late Roman sarcophagi and mural paintings at Cumae or

Pompeii Pompeii (, ) was an ancient city located in what is now the ''comune'' of Pompei near Naples in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area (e.g. at Boscoreale, Stabiae), was buried ...

, and a false connection has been traced with the fresco ''Trionfo della Morte'' ("Triumph of Death"), painted by the Italian Renaissance artist Buonamico Buffalmacco (, disputed), and currently preserved in the Campo Santo of

Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...

Etymology

The etymology of the word "macabre" is uncertain. According to Gaston Paris, French scholar of Romance studies, it first occurs in the form "macabree" in a poem, ''Respit de la mort'' (1376), written by the medieval Burgundian chronicler Jean Le Fèvre de Saint-Remy: The more usual explanation is based on the Latin name, ''Machabaeorum chorea'' ("Dance of the

Maccabees The Maccabees (), also spelled Machabees ( he, מַכַּבִּים, or , ; la, Machabaei or ; grc, Μακκαβαῖοι, ), were a group of Jewish rebel warriors who took control of Judea, which at the time was part of the Seleucid Empire. ...

"). The seven tortured brothers, with their mother and Eleazar (

2 Maccabees 2 Maccabees, el, Μακκαβαίων Β´, translit=Makkabaíōn 2 also known as the Second Book of Maccabees, Second Maccabees, and abbreviated as 2 Macc., is a deuterocanonical book which recounts the persecution of Jews under King Antiochus I ...

6 and 7) are prominent figures in the dramatic dialogues.The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (Fifth edition; 2002) states that the origin of "macabre" perhaps has reference to "a miracle play containing the slaughter of the Maccabees." Volume 1, p. 1659. Other connections have been suggested, as for example with St. Macarius the Great, an Egyptian Coptic monk and hermit who is to be identified with the figure pointing to the decaying corpses in the fresco ''Trionfo della Morte'' ("Triumph of Death") painted by the Italian Renaissance artist Buonamico Buffalmacco, according to the Italian art historian Giorgio Vasari; or with the Arabic word ''maqābir'' (مقابر, plural of '' maqbara'') which means "cemeteries".

External links

Macabre Art Gallery
{{Horror fiction Horror genres Death customs Memento mori

History

Etymology

See also

External links