The Dance of Death

This is a weird, hybrid art book. Not exactly coffee table ready, and not exactly an art history paperback. The main point of the book is the reproductions of the entire series of Holbein’s Dance of Death woodcuts and his Alphabet of Death. The images are clear and are reproduced at about twice the actual size of the miniature prints. I would prefer a much more finely crafted, museum-quality book of images, but this is good nonetheless. The second half of the book is an long essay on the life of Holbein leading up to the creation of this series and the historical context of the Protestant reformation.