Images of Death in Roman Churches

Funerary monument to Bishop Georgius Meisellius, 1710, Santa Maria dell' Anima

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In the 17th century funerary monuments in Roman churches began to incorporate explicit images of death. This often took the form of nothing more than a skull, but in some cases death was fully personified, commonly in the shape of the Grim Reaper, with, or without, his hourglass and/or scythe. 

Such an image is known as a memento mori (remember you must die), a reminder to us all of the inevitability of death. 

A good example can be found in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo. The funerary monument of the Roman architect Giovanni Battista Gisleni (1600-72) is made up of his portrait inscribed 'NEQUE HIC VIVUS'. Underneath are two medallions; one of a chrysalis inscribed 'IN NIDULO MEO MORIAR; the other of an emerging butterfly inscribed UT PHOENIX MULTIPLICATO DIES. While below is a skeleton wrapped in a white winding-sheet and the inscription 'NEQUE ILLIC MORTVVS'.  

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Funerary monument to Mariano Pietro Vecchiarelli, San Pietro in Vincoli

Funerary monument to Cardinal Cinzio Aldobrandini, San Pietro in Vincoli

Funerary monument of G. B. Gisleni, Santa Maria del Popolo

Funerary monument to Giovan Battista Gisleni, Santa Maria del Popolo

Funerary monument to Camillo del Corno, church of Gesù e Maria

Funerary monument to Cardinal Lorenzo Imperiali, Sant' Agostino

Rospigliosi-Pallavicini Chapel, San Francesco a Ripa

Rospigliosi-Pallavicini Chapel, San Francesco a Ripa

Funerary monument of Pope Urban VIII, St Peter's Basilica

Funerary monument of Pope Alexander VII, St Peter's Basilica