THE ISTRIAN DANSE MACABRE: BERAM AND HRASTOVLJE TOMISLAV VIGNJEVIĆ The Danse Macabre has been attested in numerous places across Europe, but many medieval examples are known only through descriptions or copies, or are poorly preserved. Nevertheless, two frescoes of the Danse in Istria have survived in very good condition, and as such are a precious source of information on this iconographic motif within the region where Italian and Central European artistic traditions are intertwined (Pls 14-15). These Danse Macabre cycles are exceptional for their extraordinary compositions and iconographic peculiarities; clear signs of the ability of their authors to produce works of art in which different iconographic traditions are merged into complex and original solutions. This essay will explore this intertwinement, which gave way to a diverse and abundant artistic creativity that was evident in fifteenth-century painting in Istria. The two Istrian Danse cycles are situated in Beram (in the central part of the peninsula, Fig. 76 and Pl. 14) and Hrastovlje (about 15 kilometres from Koper, in the northern part of Istria, Pl. 15). 1 Both schemes are remarkable not only for their artistic and geographic position, but also because both painters – Vincent and John of Kastav – were influenced by the iconography and style of northern European art. 2 In Istrian art and culture of the late Middle Ages, where the Italian artistic idiom and culture were heavily pervasive, this is certainly a significant occurrence because it provides a clear example of the coexistence of different cultural and artistic traditions. It is important to note that almost at the same time that 1 Both schemes are briefly described and illustrated in Reinhold Hammerstein, Tanz und Musik des Todes. Die mittelalterlichen Totentänze und ihr Nachleben (Bern/Munich: Francke Verlag, 1980), 193-94, figs 130, 132. 2 The two painters came from Kastav, a small town near Rijeka (Croatia), which is almost all that is known about them. They each appear to have headed large workshops as the frescoes in Beram and Hrastovlje show the hands of different painters.