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Submitted: July 14, 2012
Image Size: 6.3 MB
Resolution: 2696×2272

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La Mort et l'artisteby ~MarcDuhamel

Traditional Art / Drawings / Fantasy

La Mort et l'artiste, ink on paper, 2012. Self-portrait with bossy skeletons. Hopefully the first of a Danse Macabre series. This took a long time to complete, the rest of the series might be complete in a year or two.

EDIT July 17, 2012:

Excerpt from a reply I wrote to ~GlacyRoserade, attempting to explain this piece:

"This drawing started as a self-portrait, based on a picture I had taken with my webcam a while back. One of my favourite artists is Hans Holbein the Younger, who had done a series of prints titled "The Dance of Death" or "Totentanz". I've been wanting to give homage to this work for a while, and I knew many other artists had made series on the same theme. Upon further research, I found that this allegorical theme's origin dates back to medieval France, where it was first illustrated in the Church of Holy Innocents (1424-25). The "Danse Macabre" was developed following the bubonic plague which had decimated the population of Europe, and France was also dealing with the Hundred Years' War, both of which had brought great strife to the population. The "Danse Macabre" was, more than just an illustration of religious thought- it was a theme which appealed to the people- death as the great equalizer. No matter who you were and your status in society- king, pope, knight, peasant, musician, child- you would have to ultimately dance with death in the end. It is the only justice in the face of the vanity of humanity's life on Earth that death holds sway over everyone.

"Now, concerning what the picture is trying to express, this is the first in a series loosely based on the "Danse Macabre" theme. The artist is not dead, and doesn't have any intention of dying. One of the personifications of death is trying to tell him what to draw, while another is trying to prevent him from drawing. Two others seem to want to join in, mockingly, behind the one who is pointing to the artist what he should draw. Other personifications of death are just lurking in the shadows, how many of them there actually are is hard to say in the density of the darkness. The artist's act of creation while in the land of the living is an act of defiance against Death. I guess that's as good an interpretation of what the drawing means. As long as I'm alive I'll keep on drawing. I can't please everyone with what I draw. But as long as I'm alive, I'll defy Death with my pen, whether it's a symbolic drawing, a portrait of a pretty lady, or a songbird flying..."