http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2009/06/30/massachusetts-memento-mori/ • • • Being a journal by artist and designer John Coulthart, cataloguing interests, obsessions and passing enthusiasms. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:18:07 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2009/06/30/massachusetts-memento-mori/comment-page-1/#comment-113854 John Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:51:32 +0000 http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/?p=5504#comment-113854 Hi Sue. I was also surprised these had weathered so well. Must have been some tough stone they used. I was surprised by the bats as well. The symbolism is quite curiously medieval on this one, even the cherubs look like the kind of things you'd see in illuminated manuscripts. The Victorian era seemed to narrow down the range of options for funerary architecture. Skulls and bones were phased out in favour of draped urns and morose angels. When I was in Paris I wandered through most of Père Lachaise and don't recall seeing anything this fanciful at all, despite the many otherwise fine (and costly) monuments. Hi Sue. I was also surprised these had weathered so well. Must have been some tough stone they used. I was surprised by the bats as well. The symbolism is quite curiously medieval on this one, even the cherubs look like the kind of things you’d see in illuminated manuscripts. The Victorian era seemed to narrow down the range of options for funerary architecture. Skulls and bones were phased out in favour of draped urns and morose angels. When I was in Paris I wandered through most of Père Lachaise and don’t recall seeing anything this fanciful at all, despite the many otherwise fine (and costly) monuments.

]]> http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2009/06/30/massachusetts-memento-mori/comment-page-1/#comment-113836 Sue Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:28:28 +0000 http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/?p=5504#comment-113836 Thank you for these, John, they are really beautiful. And lovely to see them so clearly, unlike the degraded sandstones which feature in the North-east UK, where I live. (Although weathered stone does have a particular aesthetic of its own, it's so nice to see the detail sometimes). The bodiless cherubs particularly have always struck me as having a high weirdness quotient. Which I like. I also like the ouroborus/snake symbol. Much appreciated post. Thank you for these, John, they are really beautiful. And lovely to see them so clearly, unlike the degraded sandstones which feature in the North-east UK, where I live. (Although weathered stone does have a particular aesthetic of its own, it’s so nice to see the detail sometimes).
The bodiless cherubs particularly have always struck me as having a high weirdness quotient.
Which I like.
I also like the ouroborus/snake symbol. Much appreciated post.

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