asylum-art:_Warning Shocking Content_The ghastly glory of Europe’s jewel-encrusted relics phot
asylum-art:_Warning Shocking Content_The ghastly glory of Europe’s jewel-encrusted relics photos: Paul Koudounaris At once horrifying and enchanting, the Germanic tradition of bejewelled relics illuminates our feelings about mortalityThis must be a common reaction to the photographs in a new book, Heavenly Bodies. Skeletons from Roman catacombs, mistaken for the remains of martyrs, were imported by the dozen for churches in Switzerland, Bavaria and Austria, mostly in the 17th and 18th centuries. They were articulated in suitable poses (like squirrels in a Victorian taxidermy tableau), clad in gems and displayed in glazed niches for popular devotion. At first they seem deliberately grotesque, a memento mori. But the author, Paul Koudounaris, insists that on the contrary, the intention was to give them the highest dignity by ornamenting them with gems mentioned in the Book of Revelation’s description of the heavenly Jerusalem.Via: telegraph.co.uk -- source link
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