Bernt Notke
Dance of Death
Saint Nicholas’ Church Tallin Estonia

The Danse theme used representations of all strata of society and their deathly doppelgangers made everyone confront their personal mortality. The equalizing nature of death as represented by the Danse theme added to the shift in a humanistic perspective on society. Additionally, this theme mirrored the eschatological opinions of the church emphasizing the inevitability of death and the importance of the immortal soul.