Totentanz Death and the Boy postcard

Totentanz Death and the Boy: This vintage art is part of otto wirsching's dance of death/ Vom Totentanz Anno, circa 1915. This was the most significant of the many “death dances” produced during the First World War, He was greatly influenced by the Dance of death woodcuts of the old German masters of the Renaissance. His choice of images, however, is distinctly modern: in his the figure of Death, in the traditional form of a skeleton, confronts a variety of contemporary figures who will meet their doom as a result of the devastation of this new war. Overall Wirsching's, Vom Totentanz is a grim indictment of the evil of war and man’s innate inhumanity to man. By alluding so directly to the hallowed stylistic tradition of the German Totentanz, Wirsching’s philosophical message is all the more damning. this particular woodcut depicts death digging a hole next to a wall as a poor ragedly dressed snot nosed boy stands atop the wall watching. In the background his mother yells at him to get away.