Plague Inspired Danse Macabre Art

One consequence of the persistent risk of death in the 14th-century plague was that some Europeans sought religious penance and others sought pleasure and amusement while they might. The Danse Macabre, or "Dance of Death" fused these contradictory reactions in an artistic genre depicting Death leading popes, emperors, kings, laborers and children to the grave. Death cared not for riches or rank, but would eventually get everyone, its message warned.

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