Evaluating the Evidence 11.1: Dance of Death

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Dance of Death

In this fifteenth-century fresco from a tiny church in Croatia, skeletons lead people from all social classes in a procession.

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(Fresco, 1475, Chapel of Our Lady of the Rocks, Croatia/Stuart Black/© Robert Harding World Imagery/Alamy Stock Photo)

EVALUATE THE EVIDENCE

  1. Based on their clothing and the objects they are carrying, who are the people shown in the fresco? What does this suggest was the artist’s message about death?
  2. Paintings such as this clearly provide evidence of the preoccupation with death in this era, but does this work highlight other social issues as well? If so, what are they?