The statue, on display at Saint-Étienne church in the French city of Bar-le-Duc, is known as a “transi.” Popular in western Europe during the Renaissance, the art form depicts a deceased person during the transition between life and death—the corporeal husk of a departed soul. It’s a particularly impactful memento mori.From the late 14th century onward, some tombs were also adorned with recumbent transi sculptures. In contrast to the usual serene depictions of eternally sleeping saints, these “cadaver tombs’ showed the effects of death in stark detail. The effigy of French doctor Guillaume de Harsigny is emaciated and noseless, while Belgian sculptor Jacques du Broeucq’s 16th-century "l'homme à moutons” (“man eaten by worms”) shows a decaying body riddled with the wriggling creatures.A Look at the Striking “Transi” Corpse Sculptures.
The remains of a wild Pottock, picked clean by the vultures in the middle of the Pyrénées. Its flesh sustained thousands of others and its bones are so beautiful, scattered against the wild flowers and green grass. I wish for my own end to be just as meaningful.
Memento Mori watch owned by Mary, Queen of Scots. 16th century. Engraved along the base of the skull is a verse from Horace: “Pale death visits with impartial foot the cottages of the poor and the castles of the rich.“
