dødens store billedebog

by Stefan Pajung, Søren Hein Rasmussen

Genres: Nonfiction

356 pages, Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 2020

Reviews

[Siri Olsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A comprehensive and beautifully presented overview of the representation of Death personified in art and literature throughout the past millennium. The emphasis is heavily on Europe, but this is somewhat justified by the theme of the book, and the rest of the world is discussed towards the end, with special attention paid to Día de los Muertos-celebrations in the Latin world. The main attraction is the many, many beautiful printings of art from the Middle Ages to the present, with most chapters being devoted to a particular motif such as Danse Macabres or Death and the Maiden. That being said, I found the discussions in each chapter to be somewhat lacking. Although the authors do a fine job of presenting the most important artists and artworks connected with each theme, the discussions of meaning are quite brief and never manage to do much more than scratch the surface. Dødens Store Billedbog is an artbook - not a scientific study of the European perception of Death and the afterlife from the Middle Ages to the present.