The Dance of Death has come full circle. According to Christian doctrine, the end of the world will be marked by the Final Judgment at which all who have died and all who are still living on Judgment Day will appear before Christ to be judged for their actions on earth. Death's dominion has been broken, as Christ sits amid the angels and patriarchs surrounded by the waiting resurrected undead.
This woodcut by Holbein depicts the culmination of the dance of death and conveys the message that ultimately death will be defeated by faith in Christ.
This final woodcut forms the perfect counterpart to the beginning of the cycle where Death is shown having gained dominion over Man as a result of Man's disobedience to God and his expulsion from the Garden of Eden. After many ages, the world has come full circle. Death has been defeated, though in a sense it has also triumphed. The final day is here and everyone has died. All th past and future generations have gone to the grave. But in Holbein's conception of the universe, this death was not final. All of the dead now have been resurrected. They have been dead but are no alive, until final judgment is passed on them. The woodcut depicts crowds of humans in some sort of celestial sphere looking up to Christ as Judge who will pass judgment and send them to heaven or hell. Among the untold billions at the Resurrection would undoubtedly be many of the types depicted in the earlier woodcuts, from simple merchants, to young brides and emperors, running the full gamut of the human experience.
The image presented here has unfortunately had to be censored in order to meet Google's prohibition against showing naughty parts. I can't even use a more technical term for fear of breaching their terms of service.
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Holbein - the Dance of Death.
