the vanity of excess
and the peace of death
What an incredible exhibition Death: A Self Portrait at the Wellcome Collection is. I’m going to visit again as it’s quite a sensory overload. It’s a celebration of death, it’s not at all morbid in my mind. Some of it is sad and tragic of course but on the whole it’s about attitudes to life and our inevitable death, how we cope and the celebration of life.
One of the exhibits - “Death the Friend” by Alfred Rethel (wood engraving 1851). This is quite a compassionate piece. The old bellringer has died. Death waits till dawn and rings the bell on his behalf, paying respect to the fact that the bellringer has to some degree, been working for him all his life.
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