Holbein the Younger (1497–1543), famed for his portraits of Erasmus and Henry VIII, also produced a remarkable series of woodcuts in Basel in the 1520s. Published in 1538, these images became known as the Dance of Death . Each scene shows Death — a skeletal figure — intruding upon people of every rank: pope, emperor, merchant, child. The message was clear: mortality spares no one. What made Holbein’s version distinctive was its medium . Earlier Dance of Death  cycles were fre