Editing Danse Macabre (section)

==Background==
Religion is an important contextual factor around the Dance of Death tradition and its effect on the population, with new eschatology concepts in the fourteenth century being critical for the development of the Dance of Death.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195173697.001.0001/acref-9780195173697 |title=The International Encyclopedia of Dance |date=1998-01-01 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-517369-7 |editor-last=Cohen |editor-first=Selma Jeanne |edition=1 |language=en |doi=10.1093/acref/9780195173697.001.0001}}</ref> Early examples of Dance of Death artwork were present in religious contexts such as murals on Christian church walls. These served to remind people about the inevitability of death and urge moral reflection in order to cope with this reality.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last1=Rittershaus |first1=Luisa |last2=Eschenberg |first2=Kathrin |date=2021 |title=Black Death, Plagues, and the Danse Macabre. Depictions of Epidemics in Art |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27087287 |journal=Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung. Supplement |issue=33 |pages=330–341 |jstor=27087287 |issn=0936-6784}}</ref> In his 1998 study on medieval religious practices, historian [[Francis Rapp]] wrote that<blockquote>Christians were moved by the sight of the [[Infant Jesus]] playing on his mother's knee; their hearts were touched by the [[Pietà]]; and [[patron saint]]s reassured them by their presence. But, all the while, the danse macabre urged them not to forget the end of all earthly things.<ref name="Allmand1998">{{cite book|last=Rapp|first=Francis|title='Religious Belief and Practice' in The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 7, c. 1415–c. 1500|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qzc8OeuSXFMC&pg=PA210|access-date=19 October 2015|year=1998|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-38296-0|page=210|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160423072407/https://books.google.com/books?id=Qzc8OeuSXFMC&pg=PA210|archive-date=23 April 2016}}</ref></blockquote>It is generally agreed upon by scholars that Dance of Death depictions do show realistic dancing based on the quality of gestures seen in artwork and familiarity with steps found in texts.<ref name=":0" /> The paintings include body positions that seem to indicate movement, particular gestures, and specific orders and dynamics between the characters, while texts use relevant dance vocabulary. These elements may indicate the presence of past enacted dances and that the depictions were read for a performative function, as hypothesized by Gertsman in her paper “Pleyinge and Peyntynge: Performing the Dance of Death.” This view centers on the incorporation of both visual and theatrical devices in these depictions to create effective artwork.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gertsman |first=Elina |date=2006 |title=Pleyinge and Peyntynge: Performing the Dance of Death |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23923692 |journal=Studies in Iconography |volume=27 |pages=1–43 |jstor=23923692 |issn=0148-1029}}</ref> Gertsman writes that<blockquote>By drawing its inspiration from the sphere of performance, the Dance of Death imagery, along with its text, invites a performative reading, informed by specific structures of the verses, the concept of movement, and the understanding of the body language of the danse macabre's protagonists. </blockquote>However, there is scarce evidence surrounding a physical dancing performance tradition of the Dance of Death outside of its other depictions.<ref name=":0" /> The ''Danse Macabre'' was possibly enacted at village pageants and at [[Masque|court masques]], with people "''dressing up as corpses from various strata of society''", and may have been the origin of costumes worn during [[Allhallowtide]].<ref name="PulliamFonseca2016">{{cite book|last1=Pulliam|first1=June|last2=Fonseca|first2=Anthony J.|title=Ghosts in Popular Culture and Legend|year=2016|publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]]|language=en|isbn=978-1-4408-3491-2|page=145|quote=Since the 16th century, costumes have become a central part of Halloween traditions. Perhaps the most common traditional Halloween costume is that of the ghost. This is likely because ... when Halloween customs began to be influenced by Catholicism, the incorporation of the themes of All Hallows' and All Souls' Day would have emphasised visitations from the spirit world over the motifs of spirites and fairies. ... The baking and allowing them to go door to door to collect them in exchange for praying for the dead (a practice called souling), often carrying lanterns made of hollowed-out turnips. Around the 16th century, the practice of going house to house in disguise (a practice called guising) to ask for food began and was often accompanied by recitation of traditional verses (a practice called mumming). Wearing costumes, another tradition, has many possible explanations, such as it was done to confuse the spirits or souls who visited the earth or who rose from local graveyards to engage in what was called a Danse Macabre, basically a large party among the dead.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Books & Culture: A Christian Review|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZOVEAQAAIAAJ|year=1999|publisher=[[Christianity Today]]|page=12|quote=Sometimes enacted as at village pageants, the danse macabre was also performed as court masques, the courtiers dressing up as corpses from various strata of society...both the name and the observance began liturgically as All Hallows' Eve.|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160423113526/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZOVEAQAAIAAJ|archive-date=23 April 2016}}</ref><ref name="Morrow2001">{{cite book|last=Morrow|first=Ed|title=The Halloween Handbook|year=2001|publisher=Kensington Publishing Corporation|language=en|isbn=978-0-8065-2227-2|page=[https://archive.org/details/halloweenhandboo00morr/page/19 19]|quote=Another contributor to the custom of dressing up at Halloween was the old Irish practice of marking All Hallows' Day with religious pageants that recounted biblical events. These were common during the Middle Ages all across Europe. The featured players dressed as saints and angels, but there were also plenty of roles for demons who had more fun, capering, acting devilish, and playing to the crows. The pageant began inside the church, then moved by procession to the churchyard, where it continued long into the night.|url=https://archive.org/details/halloweenhandboo00morr/page/19}}</ref><ref name="Hörandner2005">{{cite book|last=Hörandner|first=Editha|title=Halloween in der Steiermark und anderswo |year=2005|publisher=LIT Verlag Münster|isbn=978-3-8258-8889-3|page=99|quote=On the other hand the postmodern phenomenon of "antifashion" is also to be found in some Halloween costumes. Black and orange are a 'must' with many costumes. Halloween – like the medieval danse macabre – is closely connected with superstitions and it might be a way of dealing with death in a playful way.}}</ref> Regardless, its main influence has been in the form of visual arts such as murals, paintings, and more.

The bubonic plague and its devastating effects on the European population were significantly contributing factors to the inspiration and solidification of the Dance of Death tradition in the fourteenth century.<ref name=":0" /> In her thesis, ''The Black Death and its Effect on 14th and 15th Century Art'', Anna Louise Des Ormeaux describes the effect of the [[Black Death]] on art, mentioning the ''Danse Macabre'' as she does so:<blockquote>Some plague art contains gruesome imagery that was directly influenced by the mortality of the plague or by the medieval fascination with the macabre and awareness of death that were augmented by the plague. Some plague art documents psychosocial responses to the fear that plague aroused in its victims. Other plague art is of a subject that directly responds to people's reliance on religion to give them hope.<ref>{{Cite book |last=DesOrmeaux |first=Anna Louise |title=The Black Death and its Effect on 14th and 15th Century Art |publisher=Louisiana State University |pages=29}}{{ISBN?}}</ref></blockquote> The cultural impact of mass outbreaks of disease are not fleeting or temporary. In their paper on “Black Death, Plagues, and the Danse Macabre. Depictions of Epidemics in Art,” Rittershaus and Eschenberg discuss artistic representations of various epidemics starting with the bubonic plague and extending to cholera and recent epidemics. The suffering and realization of death’s closeness, which the black death caused in Europe, were integrated with concepts of morality and Christianity to give rise to the Dance of Death tradition as a direct response to the epidemic. Cholera cases in the nineteenth century inspired a resurgence of Dance of Death depictions after the initial black death depictions, with religious connotations still present but less important.<ref name=":1" /> The Dance of Death tradition is a testament to the profound impact of an epidemic on people as depicted in art. A disease’s effect can endure past the initial stages of outbreak, in its deep etching upon the culture and society. This can be seen in the artworks and motifs of ''Danse Macabre'' as people attempted to cope with the death surrounding them.