What is it about?
Southern France has fewer traces of the Danse Macabre than its neighbouring regions. Is this because fewer survive or because there was a different approach to this theme? This chapter explores two painted examples of Dances of Death, one a painted panel and the other a painted ceiling, both from the late 15th century. It suggests how they differ from the mainstream and how they reflect regional culture, with reference to an earlier poem from Toulouse that has never before been added to the debate : 'Lo Cocir de la Mort'. This poem is presented with a translation into English in Chapter 8 of the same volume.
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Why is it important?
The chapter draws attention to the cultural exchanges within Occitan-speaking regions by bringing an overlooked poem about Death into the conversation as well as evidence of literary and religious material. It adds new ideas concerning the interactions between lyric (performed) poetry and the visual arts, including the 'dansa' lyric genre and the influence of the international Avignon curia.
Perspectives
I hope that the chapter and the full poem that follows it will provoke readers to think again about how minor languages such as Occitan play a role in the development of broader European literary and artistic movements. I began by asking why so few Danses Macabres survive in these regions and soon realised that we had missed opportunities to look more closely at the apparently eccentric aspects of a tradition. Performance especially is a dimension that still deserves to be explored further, in the light of Chapter 1, the Chambery role.
Professor Dr Catherine Leglu
University of Luxembourg
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This page is a summary of: Imagining Death in Late Medieval Occitania: Dance, the Archer and Lady Death, October 2025, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004743052_009.
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