The Dance of Death
Hans Holbein the Younger, 1538
No print size passed the check for this piece: at 8 x 10 in, 125 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged. We would rather show it than sell a soft print.
See pieces like it you can buyDeath, a lively skeleton, leads away a figure who plainly would rather stay — a plate from the Dance of Death, the medieval procession in which Death comes for every rank in turn, pope and emperor and ploughman alike. Hans Holbein the Younger's woodcut series of 1538 is the most famous of them, tiny scenes of terrible wit in which the skeleton interrupts each life at its business. The dance was a great levelling image: whatever your station, the same partner waits. Holbein drew it with more comedy than dread, which is exactly what gives the series its sting. Here is one of its encounters, held still for a moment.
- Maker
- Hans Holbein the Younger
- Date
- 1538
- Medium of the original
- Plate
- Original held by
- Les simulachres de la Mort, Lyon, 1538 · scan: Wikimedia Commons
- Credit
- Les simulachres de la Mort, Lyon, 1538 · scan: Wikimedia Commons
- Rights
- Public domain, verified
- Catalogue number
- PA-00481
Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.
| Size | Why |
|---|---|
| 8 x 10 in | 125 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 8 x 12 in | Wrong shape: a 15% crop |
| 11 x 14 in | 90 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 12 x 16 in | 79 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 12 x 18 in | Wrong shape: a 15% crop |
| 16 x 20 in | 62 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 16 x 24 in | Wrong shape: a 15% crop |
| 18 x 24 in | 53 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 20 x 30 in | Wrong shape: a 15% crop |
| 24 x 30 in | 41 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 24 x 36 in | Wrong shape: a 15% crop |
| 30 x 40 in | 31 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 36 x 48 in | 26 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 40 x 60 in | Wrong shape: a 15% crop |
- Scanned
- 2026-10-07
- Master file
- 1,000 x 1,279 px, srgb
- Tone
- Darks 74, lights 255 of 255; 15.4% clipped light, 0% clipped dark
- Colour
- 0% vivid
- Sharpness
- 27.88
- Notes
- Pure white on 15% of the image, mostly the sheet itself: it prints as the paper's white
- A plain margin is part of the file (4% of an edge): it prints as part of the picture
The Hermetica
The esoteric tradition’s emblems, astrological figures and the old charts of palmistry and phrenology.
All 58 pieces from The Hermetica
