If the message of this reburial-as-artwork was not clear, it is written into the floor of the final crypt, beneath the child’s skeleton: “What You Are, We Once Were, What We Are, You Will Be.” Memento mori. Digital image courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content Program Albumen silver print, 7 3/4 × 9 13/16 in. Friar Michael of Bergamo led the initial arrangement of the crypts and their occupants, “burying” their brethren in a way that at once suited the available space-the walls, ceiling, and floor of six vacant crypts alongside their church-venerated the remains, and created what many retrospectively label as one of the most beautiful, moving, and haunting art installations ever made.Ĭimitero dei Cappuccini, terza camera, Roma, about 1875–79, unknown photographer. What to do with this avalanche of human remains? The dead would be buried in the earthen floor for around 30 years, without a coffin, and then exhumed and transformed into decoration, to make room for the freshly deceased. For there lie the bones of some 3,700 former Capuchin and Franciscan monks, a haul that began with 300 cartloads of deceased brethren who accompanied the friars that founded this church in 1631 and added to it until 1870. At the foot of Via Veneto, the church contains a Caravaggio, but you could be forgiven for overlooking it in favor of the adjacent vaults. The scariest place I have ever been-that was not intended to be scary-is this crypt beside the church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini in Rome. Even a child’s skeleton has been strapped to the ceiling, like a fleshless cherub, but decked out as the angel of death, scales in one claw-like hand, a scythe in the other. Skeletal arms are crossed and nailed into the wall, making the symbol of the Franciscans, normally painted, out of the real thing. All around you, human bones are arranged in patterns, tiling the walls, divided by femurs, skulls, hip bones. You walk through the darkness of the crypt, with choral music playing from hidden speakers.
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