Danse Macabre: Death in Print from Durer to Dix

The danse macabre (dance of death), a visual allegory of life’s impermanence depicted by lively dancing skeletons, was popularized in woodcut illustrations as early as the 14th century. 

Equal parts foreboding and whimsical, this ghoulish imagery was taken up by artists across Europe in the centuries that followed. By World War I, German Expressionist artists found relevance in the subject, deploying motifs of skulls, hourglasses, and personifications of Death to evoke the grim circumstances of war, revolution, and industrialization.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website