danse macabre
Skeletal midnight ball
Danse macabre is the dance of death—an allegorical concept from medieval art depicting Death leading people of all stations (kings, peasants, popes, beggars) in a final dance.
The image reminds viewers that death comes for everyone regardless of rank or wealth.
The term extends to any artistic work with this theme, or more loosely to situations with a grim, fatalistic quality: The negotiations had become a danse macabre, each side knowing the company couldn't survive.
Internal supportive framework
- skullHead's bone casing
- scytheManual crop-cutting implement
- hourglassGravity-powered sand timer
- shroudBurial cloth or covering
grave · tombstone · coffin · bones · corpse · cadaver · decay · reaper
State of eventual death
- vanityExcessive pride in oneself
- transienceBrevity of existence
- inevitabilityQuality of being unavoidable
- memento moriArtistic death reminder
universality · futility · impermanence · temporality · ephemeral · folly · human condition · humility
Medieval bubonic plague pandemic
- plagueDeadly epidemic disease
- Middle AgesEurope's feudal millennium
- woodcutRelief print from timber
- frescoWet plaster painting technique
mural · church art · Holbein · Basel · charnel house · morality play · mystery play · sermon
Ghostly threatening presence
- phantomInsubstantial apparition
- apparitionVisible supernatural manifestation
- ghostlyResembling a specter
- eerieDisturbingly strange
haunted · revenant · undead · spirit · wraith · otherworldly · uncanny · chilling
Narrative orchestral composition
- xylophonePitched percussion with bars
- Dies IraeRequiem Mass sequence
- LisztHungarian Romantic-era pianist-composer
- orchestralFor a symphony ensemble
skeleton
Internal supportive framework
shroud · grave · tombstone · coffin · bones · corpse · cadaver · decay · reaper · crypt
mortality
State of eventual death
- vanityExcessive pride in oneself
- transienceBrevity of existence
- inevitabilityQuality of being unavoidable
memento mori · universality · futility · impermanence · temporality · ephemeral · folly · human condition · humility · reminder
Black Death
Medieval bubonic plague pandemic
- plagueDeadly epidemic disease
- Middle AgesEurope's feudal millennium
- woodcutRelief print from timber
fresco · mural · church art · Holbein · Basel · charnel house · morality play · mystery play · sermon · flagellants
specter
Ghostly threatening presence
- phantomInsubstantial apparition
- apparitionVisible supernatural manifestation
- ghostlyResembling a specter
eerie · haunted · revenant · undead · spirit · wraith · otherworldly · uncanny · chilling · churchyard
tone poem
Narrative orchestral composition
- xylophonePitched percussion with bars
- Dies IraeRequiem Mass sequence
- LisztHungarian Romantic-era pianist-composer
orchestral · violin · midnight · symphonic poem · programmatic
pope
Catholic Church's supreme leader
merchant · knight · bishop · beggar · noblewoman · child · monk · fool · hierarchy · rich and poor
- mortalitydeath, death knell, deceased, death rate, death acceptance
- death symbolsskull, skeleton, coffin, tombstone, gravestone
- death artmemento mori, vanitas, skull art, death masks, death portrait
- death loredeath rituals, burial rites, burial customs, wakes, death knells
- historical dancesallemande, gavotte, gigue, minuet, pavane
- macabrecorpse, corpses, skull, skulls, skeleton
danse macabrecelebration of life
Upbeat funeral alternative
joie de vivre · vitality · life force · élan vital · fertility rite
danse macabrefestive celebration
Joyful communal gathering
wedding dance · maypole dance · jubilation · revelry · merrymaking
danse macabreresurrection
Revival from death
eternal life · paradise · apotheosis · rebirth · transcendence