Still Life
These are images from the cemetery in Milan. I think I should do a photo book on the way we express the pain of death. You don’t see much hope in these despite the Christian culture. Death really is the epitome of hopelessness in life. If we have no way to overcome this last bastion of evil, there isn’t much point in the struggle, is there? That’s what the Greeks thought–and maybe we have inherited a lot of their views even if we have a Christian heritage.
I have worked hospice on and off for years. I have total recall of everyone I have helped through this part of life. These pictures do not even begin to describe the pain,and sorrow,or what it’s like cleaning a body after death so the family doesn’t have to see that very painful side or the hours of someone cheyne stoking as you keep a vigil. I would hardly think to take pictures of that and make a photo album . Really Skip a photo album !!. Sometimes you just wear a person out. Think I will refrain from commenting and stay on the listening end for awhile some thoughts are best kept to oneself.
A photo album of the way Greek/Roman art depicts grief, not pictures of the dying, is how I understood it. In contrast, I wonder if there are examples of Christian resurrection hope in art.
I knew what Skip meant, but my point is some Romanesque beautiful sculptures hardly says much to me personally. I agree his Photos make it more palatable and pleasant to the eyes and invoke emotion but it’s hardly reality. Remember this is just my opinion I just see it differently than Skip and it made me sad and a little weary.
You are correct, as I commented to Pam. The artist rendering of grief is poetically beautiful, even if it is tragic. That’s why we LOOK. We want to see those moments because we know what they are like.
I didn’t suggest a photo album of REAL DEAD people, but rather a photo book about HOW we express death in the sculptures in cemeteries. The agony captured in stone, bronze and other media reveals something about how we see life itself. Here we see pain, and love, and sorrow, and absence and a lot of other emotions of living after someone we love dies. Here we see artisans trying to capture those moments–and we see the presence of heavenly hope. You’re right about real dead people. Respect alone is enough not to make those scenes public. But in these photos something else is happening. This is about one of the deep expressions of being human, and that is worth seeing.
I read somewhere that the early followers didn’t use the cross as a symbol, rather a butterfly signifying renewal and transformation. When a family friend was dying from disease, a prolonged passing, we had a discussion of how the dying process was similar to the birth process. By necessity, leaving what is familiar and comfortable.Then with pain and difficulty, being released into a much more expansive existence. Just some thoughts on death.
Hello, I am Kenya’s sister, Merica. She shared with me this reading and the comments. I want to share with you that there is already such a book. I think the title is “Beautiful Death”. The book is quite old and records not only the classical art displayed at graves but also some residing in museums and galleries. I am a therapist and I also have worked in hospice, I also stand with people in difficult times of change, sometimes that includes the death process. Although there is anguish, there is also honor, dignity, and release. Even in the most painful moments of death, the LORD’s hand is present and evident, and it is beautiful.
Often I watch clients struggle with poor body image or self concept, especially when the body has undergone a variety of self inflicted or medically necessary changes. The body is beautiful, life and death are beautiful. I see the sculptures as art depicting that beauty. There is a saying that art reflects society. Sculptures like these are rarely produced now; perhaps evidence of a clear shift in society’s view of death, the body, and what is beautiful ( and more importantly, God’s sovereignty in it all).
My thoughts. Thank you for your time and the space to respond.
Oh please have a little mercy. I used hyperbole about taking pictures. Now I get a lecture on the beauty of death. I have seen it too guess I did not fully explain myself very well . That’s always the problem trying to communicate on a website that doesn’t know you from Adam. Sorry .
Grief is a real feeling and one we see modeled in Scripture. There’s nothing to be ashamed of for feeling grief. It’s an important and necessary response to the death of a loved one before we can move forward with life. These cemetery sculptures depict REAL grief and in their own way are beautiful…sad, but beautiful. I don’t see them as hopeless at all…unless the person remains stuck in perpetual grief. King David grieved bitterly over the death of his infant son…but then he got up and moved forward with the life and plans God had for him.
good word Judi – I’ve also read that the sages say grief is a good thing … unless (as you said) it takes on a presence of it’s own … then it is destructive. I will try not to go there.
Having experienced the loss of sibling, friends, child, spouse, extended family, and in the past six years, parents and parents-in-law, and having been very present for so many of those passages, I can say that I have assumed all but the last of these postures in my grief, especially in the immediate days and weeks before and afterward. These statues represent the survivors’ grief of loss well. I believe that was Skip’s intention.
I have stood, and sat, and knelt at burial sites, in prayer and “conversation”, questioning, wondering, doubting, aching… so perhaps the last image applies, too, if I’ll allow myself that potential identification.
Thank you, Merica, for that reference. And thank you and many blessings to you and to Pam for the tremendous self-sacrifice of service to those in need of strength and dignity, compassion and care, as this life ends so another can be hopefully awaited. I remain grateful for every professional who has helped my loved ones and their survivors. Yours is powerful, painful work and requires character traits that God Himself sustains.
my ‘therapy’ is to ‘write’ and my blog seems to be now one of ‘getting it out’ … while I hesitated for a fraction of a second to share my deepest heart strings on the ‘air’ …. I have found that other mothers and those that have lost a loved one – can not only identify – it helps them – as it helps me. So I will continue until released.
‘how we express the pain of death’ …. having to newly experience that after burying my son this week…. I can identify with the pictures you have taken. Each one has been expressed in my heart in some form or shape – EVEN as the scriptures of life try to shake the pain and grief. My son has left way too soon…he should have had another 40 or 50 years…..I will miss him with all that is in me and pray that we will meet again….
one other thing – actually I totally get both sides of this coin…as much as I want to focus on the ‘butterfly’ (and hopefully will get to that stage) the REAL side of death is smacking me in the head right now. The REAL pain of heart-gripping sadness and grief that is squeezing the life out of me is ‘where I am at’ – and yes, I do hope that Greek part of me is shed at some point – or maybe not – will I cease ‘feeling’?. Seeing those pictures Skip posted actually gave me a semblance of – I don’t know what the word would be – but I identified with them – I felt those stone cold statues FEELING my innermost, unspeakable grief….as if they were alive. I am a ‘visual’ person….and it was as if they were ‘I’…. I understand that it makes no sense to anyone, I don’t intend it to – but it makes sense to me. Thank you Skip
Today our neighbor will probably have her week-end hospitalization diagnosis of an incurable disease confirmed. She had been hoping to complete her M.A. theology degree this semester but that likely will now not happen. She is an optimistic addiction counsellor who I banter theology with but realistic enough to know that she might have very little time left. We may never see her again but I will remember her Hi George! greeting and smile on her face as the EMS guys took her away. It will be chiseled in stone in my mind forever.
Emotionally evocative. Quite beautiful except the last.