Inworks of art, the adjectivemacabre (US:/məˈkɑːb/ orUK:/məˈkɑːbrə/;French:[makabʁ]) means "having the quality of having a grim orghastly atmosphere". The macabre works to emphasize the details and symbols ofdeath. The term also refers to works particularly gruesome in nature.

Early traces of macabre can be found inAncient Greek andLatin writers such as the Roman writerPetronius, author of theSatyricon (late 1st century CE), and the Numidian writerApuleius, author ofThe Golden Ass (late 2nd century AD). Outstanding instances of macabre themes inEnglish literature include the works ofJohn Webster,Robert Louis Stevenson,Mervyn Peake,Charles Dickens,Roald Dahl,Thomas Hardy, andCyril Tourneur.^[3] InAmerican literature, authors whose work feature this quality includeEdgar Allan Poe,H. P. Lovecraft, andStephen King. The word has gained its significance from its use in French asla danse macabre for theallegorical representation of the ever-present and universal power of death, known in German asTotentanz and later in English as theDance of the Dead. The typical form which the allegory takes is that of a series of images in whichDeath appears, either as a dancingskeleton or as a shrunken shrouded corpse, to people representing every age and condition of life, and leads them all in a dance to thegrave. Of the numerous examples painted or sculptured on the walls of cloisters or church yards throughmedieval Europe, few remain except inwoodcuts andengravings.

• The series atBasel originally at theKlingenthal, a nunnery in Little Basel, dated from the beginning of the 14th century. In the middle of the 15th century this was moved to the churchyard of the Predigerkloster at Basel, and was restored, probably by Hans Kluber, in 1568. The collapse of the wall in 1805 reduced it to fragments, and only drawings of it remain.
• ADance of the Dead in its simplest form still survives in theMarienkirche atLübeck as 15th-century painting on the walls of a chapel. Here there are 24 figures in couples, between each is a dancing Death linking the groups by outstretched hands, the whole ring being led by a Death playing on a pipe.
• InTallinn (Reval), Estonia there is a well-knownDanse Macabre painting byBernt Notke displayed atSt. Nikolaus Church (Niguliste), dating the end of 15th century.
• AtDresden there is a sculptured life-size series in the old Neustädter Kirchhoff, moved here from the palace of Duke George in 1701 after a fire.
• AtRouen in the cloister of St Maclou there also remains a sculptureddanse macabre.
• There was a celebrated fresco of the subject in the cloister ofOld St Pauls inLondon.
• There was another in the now destroyed Hungerford Chapel atSalisbury, of which only a single woodcut, "Death and the Gallant", remains.
• Of the many engraved reproductions of the Old St Pauls fresco, the most famous is the series drawn byHolbein.

The theme continued to inspire artists and musicians long after the medieval period,Schubert's string quartetDeath and the Maiden (1824) being one example, andCamille Saint-Saëns' tone poemDanse macabre, op. 40 (1847).
In the 20th century,Ingmar Bergman's 1957 filmThe Seventh Seal has a personified Death, and could thus count as macabre.

The origin of this allegory in painting and sculpture is disputed. It occurs as early as the 14th century, and has often been attributed to the overpowering consciousness of the presence of death due to theBlack Death and the miseries of theHundred Years' War. It has also been attributed to a form of theMorality, a dramatic dialogue between Death and his victims in every station of life, ending in a dance off the stage.^[4] The origin of the peculiar form the allegory has taken has also been found in the dancing skeletons on lateRoman sarcophagi and mural paintings atCumae orPompeii, and a false connection has been traced with the frescoTrionfo della Morte ("Triumph of Death"), painted by theItalian Renaissance artistBuonamico Buffalmacco (c. 1330s–1350, disputed),[2] and currently preserved in theCampo Santo ofPisa.^[1]

Theetymology of the word "macabre" is uncertain. According toGaston Paris, French scholar ofRomance studies, it first occurs in the form "macabree" in a poem,Respit de la mort (1376), written by the medieval Burgundian chroniclerJean Le Fèvre de Saint-Remy:^[5]

Je fis de Macabree la dance,
Qui toute gent maine a sa trace
Et a la fosse les adresse.^[5]

The more usual explanation is based on the Latin name,Machabaeorum chorea ("Dance of theMaccabees"). The seven tortured brothers, with theirmother andEleazar (2 Maccabees 6 and 7) are prominent figures in the dramatic dialogues.^[6] Other connections have been suggested, as for example withSt. Macarius the Great, an Egyptian Coptic monk and hermit who is to be identified with the figure pointing to the decaying corpses in the frescoTrionfo della Morte ("Triumph of Death") painted by theItalian Renaissance artistBuonamico Buffalmacco, according to the Italian art historianGiorgio Vasari;^{[citation needed]} or with theArabic wordmaqābir (مقابر, plural ofmaqbara) which means "cemeteries".^{[citation needed]} A related suggestion has been made that the word originates in Hebrewmqbr meaning "from the grave".

• Body horror
• Black Death in medieval culture
• Danse Macabre, medieval allegory on the universality of death
• Danse macabre, tone poem written in 1874 byCamille Saint-Saëns
• Graphic violence
• Grimdark
• Horror fiction
• Memento mori, symbolic trope acting as a reminder of the inevitability of death

Look upmacabre in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Macabre Art Gallery

• Horror genres
• Death customs
• Memento mori

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