Karl May. (1915).
NACH DER —— SCHLACHT (after the battle). Single-sided cast bronze, brown patina, 68 mm, 76.8 g. Fast gussfrisch (near as-cast), some slight flaking of patina. Rare.
Death, personified as a skeleton, sits contemplatively atop stylized cannon to right, left leg stretched along gun barrel, head resting in right hand; legend upper edge, saparated by image; artist's initials KM in cartouche lower left.
Cf: Bernhart, Max. 1915. Kriegsmedaillen bayerischer Künstler, pl. XVIII: 91.
Cf: Bernhart, Max. 1917. Die Münchener Medaillenkunst der Gegenwart, pl. 36, no. 258.
Cf: Feldmann, Achim. 2012. "Karl May: Bildhauer, Medailleur und Schmuckkünstler in München und Erlangen (Teil 2)", in: MGM Joker KG, Feiner und alter und antike Schmuck. Aus Privatbesitz, Katalog XXI, München (2012), p. 9.
Cf: Klose, Dietrich O. A. 2016. Europas Verderben 1914 1918: Deutsche und österreichische Medaillen auf den Ersten Weltkrieg, p 278: 22.27.One of the series of seven "Totentanz" medals by Karl May. The "Totentanz" genre, as is well known, originated in Medieval and Early Modern art of Central Europe - notably with the woodcuts of Hans Holbein - and versions thereafter have continued to be developed, particularly in the German-speaking lands, into modern times. A number of First World War German medallists produced individual designs of Death represented as a skeleton or an animated corpse, and a few produced series, among them Walther Eberbach, Arnold Zadikow, and Karl May. For a general overview of examples, see the above-referenced work by Dietrich Klose, 2016.