Frantisek Rint – baroque and berserk?

Posted by Vale

Back in 1278 an Abbot of Sedlec came back to Kutna Hora with some earth from Golgotha in his travel bags.

He scattered it in the cemetery and created the most famous and popular necropolis in Bohemia and Central Europe.

Grave space was at a premium and, sometime after 1400, a chapel and charnel house was built. The ossuary is now estimated to hold the remains of some 40,000 people.

But it isn’t the numbers that astonish. In the 19th century a wood carver called Frantisek Rint began to make things – baroque, fantastical and unlikely – from the bones. The chandelier is only one of his many creations:

If you want to visit Kutna Hora there is information here.

If you want to see photographs try here.

R.I.P. and go…

By Nicola Dela-Croix

Look at any comments left on fan sites, on-line news stories and Facebook pages for people who have died, and you will see it there – on comment after comment after comment – those three letters ‘R.I.P.’. Look on flower cards left at death scenes, in books of condolence, there it is again ‘R.I.P.’.

It hit home this weekend after the 24-year-old MotoGP rider Marco Simoncelli was killed during a race in Sepang, Malaysia on Sunday morning. As a MotoGP fan I was watching the race live and felt very shocked to see him killed in front of my eyes. And then to see it again in sickening slow-motion during the action re-play. Like many fans, I went on-line to find stories and see what people were saying about the tragic event. And there they were, list after list of reader comments:

“R.I.P. Marco”

“R.I.P no. 58”

“R.I.P Simoncelli”

And it wasn’t just fan comments. Sports commentators and personalities, including F1 drivers Mark Webber and Jenson Button, were all R.I.P’ing Marco.

This abbreviation of Rest In Peace isn’t new. It’s been used for centuries. But I’m starting to feel uncomfortable about it and I’m not sure exactly why. It’s not that I doubt the sincerity behind its use. And I know that some methods of communication, like Twitter, need to be kept short and to the point.

But in an age of ‘LOL’ and ‘GR8’ has R.I.P been adopted by the quick-fire, short-speak generation who don’t know what else to say when offering their condolences? Just a thought…

 

The Good Funeral Guide
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.