Bridging Social Divides Through Death: Nicolas Lachance’s Danse macabre (édition Heidelberg, 1488)

Written by Sam Lirette 

Edited by Thierry Jasmin and Yonger Xie 

Exhibited as part of the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal’s La machine qui enseignait des airs aux oiseaux, an exhibition which ran from February 10thto April 25th 2021, Nicolas Lachance’s 2018 Danse macabre (édition Heidelberg, 1488) addresses notions of social hierarchies and class divisions. In particular, I argue the artist dismantles these conceptions through his deliberate choices in content, medium and process—that is, by referencing the democratizing medieval motif of the Danse Macabre, by employing textiles, and by utilizing processes of mechanization which harken back to the printing press. 

CONTEXTUALIZATION: THE EXHIBITION 

La machine qui enseignait des airs aux oiseaux, curated by Mark Lanctôt and François LeTourneux, focuses on themes concerning the body, objects and the idea of “making,” allowing for the exploration of the relationship between art object and creative process. Lanctôt underlines the exhibition’s main question: how can an embodied language be expressed through objects and experiences? (1). Consequently, this illuminates the role of knowledge-transfer through materiality. This point concerning knowledge-transfer will prove particularly important concerning Lachance’s emphasis on the printing press. 

Furthermore, what is perhaps the most relevant for my paper is the fact that the co-curators stress the impact of societal change, which is made evident through the chosen works and the relationship between them. Although seemingly hierarchical and elitist in its construction, the exhibition deliberately features artworks which serve to deconstruct this, instead emphasizing social change, tangibility and accessibility. This is made further evident as Lanctôt notes how the exhibition’s title refers to the serinette, a 17th century musical instrument which aimed to reproduce the sounds of birdsong. Created by and for aristocrats, the instrument was elitist in its essence. However, through time, it developed into the barrel organ, which became popular among the common people. This concept brings light to the exhibition’s main focus on the transition from precious to common and the impact of mechanization (2). This social commentary becomes crucial in understanding Lachance’s Danse macabre (édition Heidelberg, 1488). 

Danse macabre is divided into 12 identically sized and equally distanced rectangular panels, which are hung vertically on the corner walls of the gallery (3). Five panels are positioned on one wall, while seven are on the other, creating a perpendicular arrangement (fig. 1). The panels are disconnected both physically by being cut up and divided as well as in terms of content; the scenes do not match up with one another but are instead disjointed snippets of a larger scene. 

 Figure 1. Nicolas Lachance, Danse macabre (édition Heidelberg, 1488), 2018, print on cotton pulp paper.

The images are represented using linear forms, and the artist creates a rather flat space indicative of printmaking techniques. There is no apparent illusionistic rendering in the traditional sense of Renaissance perspective. Instead, we see repeated linear markings on garments, on the figure of Death and on the landscape to create more dimension (fig. 2). The fragmentation and the linearity of the work will be discussed in depth as they express the democratizing aspect of the Danse Macabre motif. 

 Figure 2. Nicolas Lachance, Danse macabre (édition Heidelberg, 1488), 2018, print on cotton pulp paper. 

THE CONCEPT: DANSE MACABRE 

Lachance’s work, as made evident by its title, depicts the medieval motif of the Danse Macabre, which stresses the universality of death. Specifically, here we see the skeletal allegory of Death grasping upon the living. There are aristocrats, knights, monks, craftsmen, merchants and peasants held delicately and sometimes more harshly. Indicating the moment when death arrives, a noble is firmly grasped by the hand (fig. 3) while a monk is led by his rope-belt as if it were a leash (fig. 4). At first glance, the viewer can already understand the imagery’s chilling reminder: Death does not discriminate in terms of social class. Even to a contemporary audience, this medieval concept may begin to ring true as death unites all in both time and space.

Furthermore, once one delves into the historical significance of the Danse Macabre, this point becomes evidently clear. In its very essence, the allegory is meant to be understood by many different audiences. It often incorporates both images and texts which were commonly written in vernacular rather than the elitist Latin (4). Thus, its targeted audience begins to reveal the allegory’s important concepts of universality, which is further emphasized through its endlessly adaptable, diverse cast of characters. Significantly, this universality becomes a key component of the work. Here, human collectivity and equality supersedes hierarchy. As Hartmut Freytag brilliantly puts it in the opening of Mixed Metaphors: The Danse Macabre in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (2011), the concept exudes a certain omnipresence and omnipotence: 

The Danse is of its time, yet also timeless; it is valid for today and for eternity. In the face of plague, poverty, war and suffering in the world, it picks up on the individual and collective anxieties of mankind and by representing both physical and spiritual death it raises fear—but also hope (5). 

Figures 3 & 4. Nicolas Lachance, Danse macabre (édition Heidelberg, 1488) (detail), 2018, print on cotton pulp paper. 

Through its inevitability, death may be understood as the most uniting concept of all, and through its ability to raise both fear and hope, further emphasizes human collectivity. Lachance specifically chooses the allegory to raise key issues concerning social equality. In fact, in Christian terms, the Danse highlights an individual’s need to fulfill their duty (ordo christianus) on Earth—an idea which transcends social hierarchies (6). The Danse Macabre therefore acts as a memento mori to all. Additionally, in such representations of death, it is important to note that one experiences a total loss of identity since conceptions of status and riches are completely obliterated (7). It is thus this loss of identity which allows for the unification of all, consequently permitting the viewer to imagine themselves in a world without alienation caused by social classes. 

Now, in terms of Lachance’s contemporary work, it becomes quite clever to reference the Danse in a museum gallery—a space often thought of as elitist. In connection to the exhibit’s main objectives, Lachance expresses an embodied language by incorporating such poignant imagery; he tells the humbling and omnipresent story of death. In this sense, the work’s anti-classist qualities are put into stark contrast with the traditionally elitist space in which it is exhibited, resulting in a certain inversion—or subversion. This may be further understood through an analysis of dance itself; in the medieval ages, dance was thought of as a way to display a sense of self-mastery and thus self-control and order, which in turn was often used as an allegory for the proper governance of a state as a whole (8). The art of dance may thus be thought of as elitist in essence—a classist demonstration of leisure and social superiority. However, the elitist qualities of trained dance can be dismantled and employed by the common people, in a similar fashion to the serinette which eventually became an instrument for the people. 

The use (or rather misuse) of musical instruments in the Danse Macabre, in fact, further emphasizes a certain inverted order, as the figure of Death commonly plays these instruments incorrectly, holds them upside down, or even seemingly utilizes them as weapons instead, hurling them at individuals (fig. 10) (9). It is through these comical, almost Carnivalesque depictions that Death demonstrates a total disregard for human novelties and their ways of 

functioning. This subsequently illustrates a mockery of anthropocentric creations—including social class. In other words, the Danse Macabre depicts the futility of earthly distinctions, which are inevitably overthrown by Death (10). 

These points concerning dance and music subsequently bring me to an important discussion concerning the role of the body as performative space. Although Lachance’s work does not utilize the body itself, it becomes relevant concerning the scenes he chooses to depict.

THE PERFORMATIVE BODY 

The curators of La machine qui enseignait des airs aux oiseaux address the exhibition’s focus on materiality, alienation and how language is inscribed in bodies and materials, which raises key ideas concerning the Danse Macabre. By consciously bringing a historical concept into our contemporary world (and into a gallery space), Lachance undoubtedly attempts to convey a certain message. This message, as I have argued, concerns social class and its consequent dismantling. It also crucially involves the body, as made evident by the aforementioned points concerning dance. 

Markus Hallensleben examines the use of our bodies as tools, stating that it is through these that we live and act, but also create ideologies and rituals (11). The body may be understood as a performative space, and dance demonstrates just that. Meanwhile, Bożena Karwowska examines how dance can be utilized by marginalized individuals to manifest their distinct identities, and the artform thus possesses sexual and cultural connotations (12). It is therefore no surprise that such an allegory for the unifying properties of death employs the notion of dance. The Danse Macabre quintessentially exhibits the performative body as it is a dance of death—both of which index the body’s materiality and reduces it to its simple forms, which are, again, free of notions of class. 

MATERIALITY: THE MEDIUM 

Now, I wish to diverge from the work’s contents and focus on its actual materiality. Significantly, the exhibition places a heavy emphasis on dismantling art hierarchies as it juxtaposes a plethora of works of different mediums from needlepoint to sound installation, film and sculpture Most importantly, it includes textile works, which have been traditionally understood in terms of mass-production and belonging to the domestic sphere. These have been seldom spoken about in art history because of the art/craft hierarchy that pervades the field and categorizes them as “low art” (13). By incorporating textile works in a gallery space, the MAC grants them importance and positions them on an equal level to other mediums. Nicolas Lachance’s Danse macabre (edition Heidelberg, 1488) may be understood as one of these works, as the artist employs cotton pulp paper and uses industrial carpet to press it (14). This results in a transfer of pattern, indexing the carpet itself and pointing to the tangible materiality of the work; a soft, weave-like pattern becomes visible on the surface of the panels, and the work’s soft, almost shredded edges, emphasize its textile qualities. The work does not only become physically tangible but also socially accessible. Therefore, Lachance addresses not only social hierarchies, but artistic ones by emphasizing his processes of mechanization and references to the printing press.

THE PROCESS: MECHANIZATION 

Lachance further guides us with his title, as the work makes specific reference to a 1488 print by Heinrich Knoblochtzer commonly known as the Heidelberger Totentanz (figs. 7-13) (Totentanz is the German name of the danse macabre). Additionally, the latter part of the title references historical modes of production, namely the invention of the printing press in the 15th century. This, in turn, emphasizes the repetitive and mechanized nature of the work while providing further commentary on social hierarchies and their subsequent dismantling. 

Figures 7-13. Heinrich Knoblochtzer, Heidelberger Totentanz,1488, print

The mechanized nature of the work, as Lanctôt makes evident, creates an accessible, non-discriminatory viewpoint through its objective standards (15). In other words, Lachance’s work isn’t abstract in nature; it does not demand an elitist understanding of art but instead connotes to mass-production and is indicative of popular art. This ability to communicate with the masses thus brings the printing press into the picture. 

Apart from the title, Lachance makes further emphasis on printing techniques through his artistic renderings. Certain marks appear to delineate shadows, such as beneath Death’s arms, while others offer detail and further definition. Some of these lines, such as those located on the mounds, are long and curvilinear, while others, such as the aforementioned markings on Death, are short and angular. Indeed, we see a stark contrast between the curvilinear lines of the clothing and the harsh, jarring lines of Death. Additionally, many diagonals are created through the depiction of flailing and reaching arms. Although the scenes depicted in the disjointed panels appear disconnected, these arms—jutting in and out of the edges of the panels—somewhat help unite the composition (figs. 4 & 5). It is important to note that most of these are not deliberate.

Figure 5. Nicolas Lachance, Danse macabre (édition Heidelberg, 1488), 2018, print on cotton pulp paper. 

However, the work is intentionally monochrome, with differing shades of black and gray, which, again, notably recalls printmaking. Certain panels appear much more saturated, gravitating towards a true black, while others appear rather faded (fig. 6). The outlines of forms are a light gray while the background appears much darker, creating a contrast between the two. They thus appear to reverse the traditional colours of printmaking: black ink on white paper. Reversal is therefore not only theoretical, but material. This notion is further emphasized by Lachance’s engraving and transferring process. His engravings are based on the original prints, which in turn were created from their own engravings. There becomes an intriguing back and forth of reversals; the original print presents the inversed image of its stamp, but Lachance’s final product returns to this initial engraving. To put it simply, Lachance’s work reverses the original. This inversion can be noted in all panels, examining figures 1-6 in comparison to the originals in figures 7-18. Therefore, Lachance consciously makes this decision. He could have ensured the final product matched the original, but by inverting it, he creates further emphasis on the printing process itself. 

Figure 6. Nicolas Lachance, Danse macabre (édition Heidelberg, 1488), 2018, print on cotton pulp paper. 

This process, dating back to the printing press, is extremely important as I argue it permanently altered and revolutionized society through new means of mass production, consequently breaking down barriers of social class by promoting literacy and disseminating ideas (16). This process, however, was not sudden and all-reaching, but rather slow and gradual (17). The printing press, nonetheless, marked a dramatic increase in the creation of written texts and a simultaneous decrease in hours required to create such texts (18). For instance, Elizabeth Eisenstein recounts how in 1483, 1025 copies of Plato’s Dialogues could be created in the same amount of time that it took a scribe to create a single copy by hand (19). The dissemination of information became significantly more efficient, while also catering to the needs of the middle and lower classes (20). Additionally, this meant students could learn on their own by reading texts which were previously reserved for the select few, instead of through their masters and tutors (21). This evidently creates parallels with the exhibition’s theme of

knowledge-transferring, and here with the printing press, it becomes much more democratic—and much less captive of elitist hands. Lachance thus makes deliberate use of these notions through countless references to such printing processes, emphasizing the medium’s ability to bridge social divides. And, in connection to the unifying qualities of the Danse Macabre, the printing press can be understood as having transformed the nature of collective memory forever (22). 

DECONSTRUCTION/FRAGMENTATION 

Throughout this article, I have put a heavy emphasis on the similar qualities between Lachance’s Danse macabre (édition Heidelberg, 1488) and the prints and processes it clearly references. However, I also wish to note key differences and deliberate deviations which position the work in a contemporary, postmodern context. What is perhaps the most noticeable is the artist’s decision to divide his chosen scenes into a series of panels. By doing so, he is able to incorporate a series of originally separate pages into one artwork. Most significantly, this results in the fragmentation of bodies; we are not given a full view into the original, but instead are granted fragments of individuals. Fascinatingly, Lachance chooses to omit nearly all faces through selective fragmentation. 

Natasha Chuk explores the notion of invisibility in her ground-breaking work on the subject, stating how every medium is prey to fragmentation, which in turn obstructs reality (23). This becomes especially relevant in the digital age in which such disruptions destabilize strict, objective and authoritarian viewpoints (24). Fragmentation, she argues, becomes a violent act and actively indexes the “presence of absence,” outlining the unknown (25). It is this emphasis on the unknown which becomes incredibly relevant to Lachance’s work, as Chuk creates parallels with death itself: 

Death, the ultimate ineffable experience, is its own negation: in death you are not simply absent, you are removed from the living. […] Death is not living; death is no longer living; death is the absence of consciousness; death is the ultimate condition of inactivity (26). 

Death, as the main protagonist of the Danse Macabre, evidently takes on an important role, which is thus emphasized through absence. Furthermore, the experience of death is reflected in the very act of such deconstruction, while the fragmentation of individuals further removes notions of identity and individuality. Through this technique, Lachance successfully likens his work to a postmodern pastiche, while still referencing the original work and the message it served to convey. 

CONCLUSION 

Through extensive research, I have examined the multiple facets of Nicolas Lachance’s Danse macabre (édition Heidelberg, 1488), incorporating its content, medium and processes. I have provided key historical context relating to the Danse Macabre and the printing press, and by addressing the work’s materiality, Lachance’s processes of mechanization, notions of the performative body as well as the act of fragmentation, I have argued that his work consciously serves to dismantle traditional notions of social hierarchy. Through the universal concept of death, demonstrated through an inherently democratic medium, Danse macabre (édition Heidelberg, 1488) emphasizes the innate ties between human individuals and attempts to bridge social divides in an institution which has historically promoted these exact class divisions and social hierarchies—an act which may be consequently understood as a demand for social change in contemporary society.

Endnotes 

1. Mark Lanctôt, “Guided Walkthrough of the MAC Exhibition ‘La machine qui enseignait des airs aux oiseaux,’” eds. Isabelle Darveau and Geneviève Philippon, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, January 2021. https://macm.org/en/exhibitions/la-machine-qui-enseignait-des-airs-aux-oiseaux/. 2. Lanctôt, “Guided Walkthrough of the MAC Exhibition.” 

3. Dimensions of the artwork unavailable. 

4. Hartmut Freytag, “Preface,” in Mixed Metaphors: The Danse Macabre in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, eds. Stefanie Knöll and Sophie Oosterwijk (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011), xxi-xxiii. 

5. Freytag, “Preface,” xxi. 

6. Freytag, xxi-xxii. 

7. Sophie Oosterwijk, “Dance, Dialogue and Duality: Fatal Encounters in the Medieval Danse Macabre,” in Mixed Metaphors: The Danse Macabre in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, eds. Stefanie Knöll and Sophie Oosterwijk (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011), 31. 

8. Frances Eustace and Pamela M. King, “Dances of the Living and the Dead: A Study of Danse Macabre Imagery,” in Mixed Metaphors: The Danse Macabre in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, eds. Stefanie Knöll and Sophie Oosterwijk (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011), 48. 

9. Susanne Warda, “Dance, Music and Inversion: The Reversal of the Natural Order in the Medieval Danse Macabre,” in Mixed Metaphors: The Danse Macabre in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, eds. Stefanie Knöll and Sophie Oosterwijk (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011), 74-78. 

10. Warda, 87. 

11. Markus Hallensleben, “Introduction: Performative Body Spaces,” in Performative Body Spaces: Corporeal Topographies in Literature, Theatre, Dance, and the Visual Arts, ed. Markus Hallensleben (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2010), 15. 

12. Bożena Karwowska, “Metaphors of Dancing and the Human Body in Nazi Concentration Camps,” in Performative Body Spaces: Corporeal Topographies in Literature, Theatre, Dance, and the Visual Arts, ed. Markus Hallensleben (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2010), 36. 

13. Julia Skelly, Radical Decadence: Excess in Contemporary Feminist Textiles and Craft (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017), 1. 

14. Lanctôt, “Guided Walkthrough of the MAC Exhibition.” 

15. Lanctôt, “Guided Walkthrough of the MAC Exhibition.” 

16. Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change: Communications and Cultural Transformations in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge England: Cambridge University Press, 1979), 422. 

17. Eisenstein, 33. 

18. Eisenstein, 33. 

19. Eisenstein, 46. 

20. Eisenstein, 62-66. 

21. Eisenstein, 66. 

22. Eisenstein, 66.

23. Natasha Chuk, Vanishing Points: Articulations of Death, Fragmentation, and the Unexperienced Experience of Created Objects (Bristol: Intellect, 2015), 3. 24. Chuk, 6. 

25. Chuk, 6. 

26. Chuk, 6.

Bibliography 

Chuk, Natasha. Vanishing Points: Articulations of Death, Fragmentation, and the Unexperienced Experience of Created Objects. Bristol: Intellect, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central. 

Eisenstein, Elizabeth L. The Printing Press as an Agent of Change: Communications and Cultural Transformations in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge England: Cambridge University Press, 1979. 

Eustace, Frances, and Pamela M. King. “Dances of the Living and the Dead: A Study of Danse Macabre Imagery.” In Mixed Metaphors: The Danse Macabre in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, edited by Stefanie Knöll and Sophie Oosterwijk, 43-72. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central. 

Freytag, Hartmut. “Preface.” In Mixed Metaphors: The Danse Macabre in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, edited by Stefanie Knöll and Sophie Oosterwijk, xxi-xxiii. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central. 

Hallensleben, Markus. “Introduction: Performative Body Spaces.” In Performative Body Spaces: Corporeal Topographies in Literature, Theatre, Dance, and the Visual Arts, edited by Markus Hallensleben, 9-30. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2010. ProQuest Ebook Central. 

Karwowska, Bożena. “Metaphors of Dancing and the Human Body in Nazi Concentration Camps.” In Performative Body Spaces: Corporeal Topographies in Literature, Theatre, Dance, and the Visual Arts, edited by Markus Hallensleben, 31-42. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2010. ProQuest Ebook Central. 

Lanctôt, Mark, “Guided Walkthrough of the MAC Exhibition ‘La machine qui enseignait des 

airs aux oiseaux.’” Edited by Isabelle Darveau and Geneviève Philippon. Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, January 2021. https://macm.org/en/exhibitions/la-machine qui-enseignait-des-airs-aux-oiseaux/. 

Lanctôt, Mark and François LeTourneux. “La machine qui enseignait des airs aux oiseaux.” Magazine of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal 31, no. 1 (Fall 2020 – Winter 2021): 4–13. https://macm.org/app/uploads/2020/11/MACMag_v31n1_E6.pdf. 

Oosterwijk, Sophie. “Dance, Dialogue and Duality: Fatal Encounters in the Medieval Danse Macabre.” In Mixed Metaphors: The Danse Macabre in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, edited by Stefanie Knöll and Sophie Oosterwijk, 9-42. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central. 

Skelly, Julia. Radical Decadence: Excess in Contemporary Feminist Textiles and Craft. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017. 

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