1440) a series of paintings on canvas by Bernt Notke, in Lübeck (1463) the initial fragment of the original Bernt Notke painting Danse Macabre (accomplished at the end of the 15th century) in the St Nicholas' Church, Tallinn, Estonia the painting at the back wall of the chapel of Sv. There were also painted schemes in Basel (the earliest dating from c. The earliest recorded visual example is the lost mural on the south wall of the cemetery of the Holy Innocents in Paris, which was painted in 1424–25 during the regency of John, Duke of Bedford: with its emphatic inclusion of a dead crowned king at a time when France did not have a crowned king, the mural may well have had a political subtext. But, all the while, the danse macabre urged them not to forget the end of all earthly things.' This danse macabre was enacted at village pageants and at court masques, with people 'dressing up as corpses from various strata of society', and may have been the origin of costumes worn during Allhallowtide.
Francis Rapp writes that 'Christians were moved by the sight of the Infant Jesus playing on his mother's knee their hearts were touched by the Pietà and patron saints reassured them by their presence.