The Advocate and The Minstrel

Category

Library Item

Item no

28473

Title

The Advocate and The Minstrel

Description

Two dead figures lead an advocate and a minstrel in a Dance of Death. The musician's instrument - perhaps a rebec or a vielle - can be seen on the ground beside him. One dead figure holds a javelin: an attribute of Death which was well-recognised in this period. This image indicates that no one is immune from Death, and this is confirmed by the verses published with it. The advocate admits that he cannot defend himself against Death; similarly, the minstrel recognizes that he must obey Death and cease playing.

Artist / maker

Unknown

Date

1873

Size

7.5 x 11.0 cm

Type

Wood cut

Location

Art and Design Library

This woodcut is from a Dance of Death by an unknown artist. The series was first printed in 1485 by the publisher Guyot Marchant, and was a copy of the fresco painted some sixty years earlier (c. 1425) in the St. Innocent's Cemetery in Paris. The arches and pillars seen in the woodcuts are supposedly references to the architectural features of the fresco's original location on the south wall of the cemetery behind the cloister-arches. The original fresco was destroyed in 1669, so Marchant's prints are all that remains of this particular Dance. The woodcuts were also accompanied with poetry attributed to Jehan Gerson. Only one copy of the 1485 edition remains; it is now housed in the Library of Grenoble. This particular image is taken from a publication of 1873, one of Central Library's many Dance of Death books.

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