The Dance of Death.

3*

of the Dominican convent. It has been remarked by onevery competent to know the fact, that nearly all the conventsof the Dominicans had a Dance of Death. 16 As thesefriars were preachers by profession, the subject must havebeen exceedingly useful in supplying texts and matter fortheir sermons. The present Dance is said to have beenpainted at the instance of the prelates who assisted at theGrand Council of Basle, that lasted from 1431 to 1443;- andin allusion, as supposed, to a plague that happened duringits continuance. Plagues have also been assigned as thecauses of other Dances of Death; but there is no foundationwhatever for such an opinion, as is demonstrable from whathas been already stated; and it has been also successfullycombated by M. Peignot, who is nevertheless a little atvariance with himself, when he afterwards introduces aconjecture that the painter of the first Dance imitated theviolent motions and contortions of those affected by theplague in the dancing attitudes of the figures of Death. 17The name of the original painter of this Basle work isunknown, and will probably ever remain so, for no depen-dence can be had on some vague conjectures, that withoutthe smallest appearance of accuracy have been hazardedconcerning it. It is on record that the old painting havingbecome greatly injured by the ravages of time, John HughKlauber, an eminent painter at Basle, was employed to repairit in the year 1568, as appears from a Latin inscriptionplaced on it at the time. This painter is said to havecovered the decayed fresco with oil, and to have succeededso well that no difference between his work and the originalcould be perceived. He was instructed to add the portraitof the celebrated (Ecolampadius in the act of preaching,in commemoration of his interference in the Reformation,that had not very long before taken place. He likewiseintroduced at the end of the painting, portraits of himself,his wife Barbara Hallerin, and their little son Hans BirichKlauber. The following inscription, placed on the paintingon this occasion, is preserved in Hentzner's Itinerary, andelsewhere.

16 Urtisii epitom. Hist. Basiliensis, 1522, 8vo.ches, xxvi.—xxix.

17 Peignot, Recher-