Totentanz Death waits postcard

Totentanz Death Waits postcard: 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 sitting just around the corner from a man oblivious leans out of his window while eating breakfast. A starving dog waits just below the window with its hackles up as it backs away from death. A strange bat winged bell flies overhead and some mountains can be seen in the background.