Like other collectors of his day, Wernher would have valued the objects as virtuoso pieces of sculpture and as macabre curiosities, and modern -day visitors will probably appreciate them for similar reasons. People who saw such tombs would say prayers for the soul of the deceased, but the image of the corpse would also prompt onlookers to consider their own mortality.īoth objects were in the collection of industrialist Julius Wernher (1850-1912) and are on display at Rangers House again from 1 April 2019 (Sunday to Wednesday). These double-decker monuments usually feature an effigy dressed in finery on an upper level, with decomposing corpses below. The boxwood coffin has a clear parallel to the design of some late medieval funerary monuments called cadaver or transis tombs. When opened, its multiple layers reveal, in turn, a funerary effigy, a decomposing corpse, and finally, a skeleton. The second object is an exquisitely carved miniature boxwood coffin dating back to the 16th century. It’s the very image of wealth and worldly pride. A heavy linked chain, doubtless of gold, hangs around her neck. She is clad in expensive clothes and carries a small lapdog. One side is carved with the bust of a rich lady in the prime of her life. Aesthetically, its two sides couldn’t be more different.

The first is a small ivory pendant produced in the Netherlands in around 1500. In focus: memento mori in our collectionĮnglish Heritage has two memento mori in its collection at Ranger’s House, near Greenwich, London. Memento mori were designed to help people to do just that. With the stakes so high, it was essential to be prepared for death.

The third possibility was Purgatory, an intermediate state, where souls would be purged of sin before being allowed to enter into heavenly paradise. The very virtuous would immediately enjoy eternal bliss in Heaven, but those who lived a wicked life and showed no remorse for their sins would be damned to burn in Hell. Medieval Christians (and 1.2 billion Roman Catholics today) believed that at death their souls were destined for one of three places.

They show the two sides of human existence, juxtaposing life and death, often in quite a gruesome way. Memento mori artwork and imagery are laden with religious significance. In this blog Dr Michael Carter reveals the history of memento mori and explains what they can teach us today. Known as memento mori, or ‘remember death’ in Latin, they provide a fascinating insight into medieval religious beliefs and attitudes towards death. Life in medieval times was all too often, in the famous words of the 17th-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes, ‘nasty, brutish and short.’Įnglish Heritage cares for two remarkable objects that relate to this very theme. Perhaps because of this, medieval people didn’t consider it the least bit morbid to often contemplate the shortness of their lives and the inevitability of death. Epidemic disease, poor nutrition, famine, basic medical care, inadequate housing and appallingly violent warfare meant that the average life expectancy could be as low as 30 years.

But for our medieval ancestors the prospect of death was a feature of their daily lives. Let’s be honest, most of us, even at Halloween, would rather not think about the reality of our own mortality.

Memento mori translation to english