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86

The Dance of Death.

variance with what has been advanced with respect to theBible cuts ascribed to him. It is, however, by no means amatter of necessity that an artist with Holbein's talentsshould have been resorted to for the purpose of designingthe additional cuts to the Lyons work. There were,during the middle of the 16th century, several artistsequally competent to the undertaking, both as to inventionand execution, as is demonstrable, among numerous otherinstances, from the spurious but beautiful Italian copy ofthe original cuts ; from the scarcely distinguishable copiesof the Lyons Bible cuts, in an edition put forth by JohnStelsius at Antwerp, 1561, and from the works of severalartists, both designers and wood-engravers, in the bookspublished by the French, Flemish, and Italian booksellersat that period. An interesting catalogue raisonne mightbe constructed, though with some difficulty, of such articlesas were decorated with most exquisite and interestingembellishments. The above century was much richer inthis respect than any one that succeeded it, displayingspecimens of art that have only been rivalled, perhapsnever outdone, by the very skilful engravers on woodof modern times.

Our attention will, in the next place, be required to theexcellent engraver of the Dance of Death, the thirty-sixthcut of which represents the Duchess sitting up in bed andaccompanied with two figures of Death, one of which playson a violin, whilst the other drags away the bed-clothes.On the base of one of the bed-posts is the mark or mono-gram j^J. , which has, among other artists, been incon-siderately ascribed to Holbein. That it was intended toexpress the name of the designer cannot be supported byevidence of any kind. We must then seek for its meaningas belonging to the engraver, and whose name was, in allprobability, Hans Leuczellberger or Lutzenberger, some-times called Franck. M. de Mechel, the celebrated print-seller and engraver at Basle, addressed a letter to M. deMurr, in which he states that on a proof sheet of analphabet in the library in that city, containing severalsmall figures of a Dance of Death, he had found the abovename. M. Brulliot remarks that he had seen some of the