Rosary of skulls and faces

This early 16th century German rosary from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection is a fabulous bit of memento mori, with callow, living mortals on one side of each bead and grinning death's heads on the other:

Each bead of the rosary represents the bust of a well-fed burgher or maiden on one side, and a skeleton on the other. The terminals, even more graphically, show the head of a deceased man, with half the image eaten away from decay. Such images served as reminders that life is fleeting and that leading a virtuous life as a faithful Christian is key to salvation.

Rosary, ca. 1500–1525 (via Neatorama)

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Nezrite

I like this. I especially like it more than how I originally read the headline, which was “skulls and feces.” I should have finished that second cup of coffee, in retrospect.
FreakCitySF

Want!
Rich Keller

There’s something so opulent and grisly about art from that place and time, but I keep thinking the we aren’t supposed to forget Morey Amsterdam.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/63798515@N00/6565140587/
http://www.gotmedieval.com Got Medieval

Small world. I used an image of a similar, less elaborate rosary, to begin a post on Hitchen’s death. Even if people are tired of hearing about that subject now, it’s still a neat picture:
http://www.gotmedieval.com/2011/12/ave-et-vale-hitch-it-served.html
Antinous / Moderator

yak bone skulls

Not as fancy, but you can’t make it through the Himalayas without buying a few handfuls in the form of a 27 or 108 bead mala.
LydiRae

This is exactly what I would buy if I won the lotto.
http://www.jimdraws.com Thorzdad

It’s pretty cool. But, I’m trying hard to figure out how one would use it as a rosary. Or, was the rosary performed differently in the 1500′s?
justine

From the colour, cracks, quality of the carving and the Met reference, I’m going to assume these are ivory (of the elephant variety). Gorgeous. Bad for the elephants, of course, but an amazing carving medium all the same…
http://thriftfu.wordpress.com License Farm

I get to protect this piece sometimes. Granted, inside a display case it doesn’t need much more help, but I’m the human failsafe if the other humans exceed tolerances. I’d like to see someone’s old Catholic grandmother carry these around in their purse; I bet she’d start being invited to black metal clubs.