A Time to Dance, a Time to Die Drawing

What made this erratic crowd of burghers join in the cavort that saw many an inhabitant of Strasbourg literally exhausted to death in the dancing plague of 1518? Skeletons have been luring impious Christians into a ‘dance macabre’ in numerous cautionary tales of the Medieval period. By the end of the dancing epidemic, under the possible influence of the ergot fungi, from which LSD is currently synthetized, over 400 people are said to have lived out scenes from the art they have been warned with against their sins. The mass mania lasted for a month and registered up to fifteen deaths per day at its peak, with a striking majority of its victims being female. The authorities made unsuccessful attempts to stifle the outbreak by calling on the priests represented at the left of the piece. Several minor cases of dancing plague have been subsequently recorded in the region and all appear to have come to a halt with a mysterious naturalness.

Drawing:Pencil on Wood

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:27 W x 19 H x 1.5 D in

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