A Dance of Death as a night at the ball, drawn like a copperplate engraving: on the front a skeleton in a huge top hat leads a round dance of five, on the back a couple whirls beneath seven red lanterns, and on each sleeve a top-hat skeleton spreads both arms wide.
Product description
This Danse Macabre T-shirt tells the age-old dance with Death as a night at the ball. Beneath red paper lanterns, skeletons in top hats, tailcoats and ruffled gowns spin around, drawn in fine lines like an old copperplate engraving. None of the skeletons looks threatening here. Everyone is celebrating, and that is the whole point of the motif: Death does not dance against life, he dances with it, and every guest is invited.
On the front you look down at an angle into a round dance of five skeletons. In the middle, large and very close, the lead dancer strides towards you. His black top hat with its red band takes up a large part of the chest, and beneath it a skull grins above a red bow tie. He wears a tailcoat with red-lined tails, trousers with turn-ups and a laced shoe that is just stepping forward. On the right he leads a skeleton lady by the hand, with roses in her pinned-up hair, short puff sleeves and a wide ruffled skirt with red edges. On the left a second lady dances with orange-red roses. She rests one hand on his shoulder and stretches the other one upwards, towards a dancer in a frock coat with a small top hat. Next to them a fifth skeleton, also wearing a top hat, whirls through the crowd, and at the top right hangs a string of four round lanterns with tassels. Seen from above, the round dance looks like a whirlpool turning around the hat in the middle. The longer you look, the more hands, ruffles and roses emerge from the hatching.
On the back the round dance becomes a couple dance. Under an arch of seven round red lanterns with tassels, a skeleton couple whirls in full swing. The gentleman on the left wears a top hat, red bow tie, red waistcoat and a tailcoat whose red lining flutters behind him. His striped trousers have turn-ups, one knee is pulled up high, the laced shoes gleam. The lady on the right wears a large rose in her hair, puff sleeves, a red sash with a bow and a tiered ruffled skirt in cream and dark red, with strappy heeled shoes underneath. A red ribbon flies from her waist. Above their heads two hands clasp, further down the second pair, and the whole scene turns between these two grips.
The sleeves join the dance too. On each one a top-hat skeleton with a red bow tie leans far forward and spreads both bony arms wide, as if gliding in to bring the next guest into the circle. The red lining of his tailcoat flutters beneath the arms, mirrored left and right. Everything is drawn in the manner of a copperplate engraving: dense cross-hatching and parallel hatching, strong black outlines, bones in warm cream, plus red to dark red and a touch of copper brown on the lanterns and strings. The motif is cut out, so the shirt itself shows between the figures. The motif does without words entirely and tells its story through figures alone.
The Dance of Death, Totentanz in German, has been one of the great pictorial themes of Europe since the late Middle Ages. Back then Death led emperors, peasants and bishops in a long line to show that he leaves no one out. This motif moves the old idea to a ball night of the 19th century: tailcoat and top hat instead of crown and cowl, lanterns instead of an ossuary. The message stays the same and yet sounds more cheerful. Here, memento mori mainly means: dance while the music is playing.
The Danse Macabre T-shirt suits everyone who loves old printmaking and is not afraid of dark humour: gothic fans, art lovers, regulars at medieval markets and gothic balls. For Halloween it brings the ball night along to the party, and it works just as well on All Souls' Day or at a horror film night. As a gift it speaks to people who would rather wear a memento mori than put one on a shelf. And anyone who looks closely soon wonders who is actually dancing with whom.
