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Elina Gertsman, The Dance of Death in the Middle Ages: Image, Text, Performance, Studies in the Visual Culture of the Middle Ages 3 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2010). xii + 356 pp.; 149 b/w + 45 colour illustrations, 4 fold-outs. ISBN 978-2-50353063-5. euro85.00.
After an introduction setting out a brief history of the Dance of Death and the author's theoretical position, the book comprises three initial chapters that provide an overarching background interpretation to these works, focusing on, respectively, the historical and cultural context, the significance of the 'dance' in the dance of death when understood against late medieval theories concerning dance, and the performative aspect of these works. There follow two chapters presenting readings on individual works, first on the Dance of Death at Reval (now Talinn), and then on three cycles from La Chaise-Dieu, Berlin, and Meslay-le-Grenet. There is a brief epilogue looking forward to the transformation of the Dance of Death by Holbein in the sixteenth century; the volume closes with a selection of Dance of Death texts.
Gertsman's particular contribution to this subject is that she moves away from the tradition of iconographic interpretation, reading these works from the perspective of audience reception as...