Time: 2 pm EST
Admission: $8 - Tickets HERE

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A long way from the idea of the cemetery, with its atmosphere of peace and the emotions it instills, the term “ossuary” usually evokes an impression of gloomy coldness; but the three places that will be addressed in this lecture are very different. These are Italy’s most important religious ossuaries in which bones have been used for a decorative and allegorical purpose: the Capuchin Crypt and Santa Maria dell’Orazione e Morte in Rome, and San Bernardino alle Ossa in Milan.  

These ossuaries are shining examples of macabre art and memento mori, and yet they reveal another, unexpected message: one of hope and trust in an afterlife for which the earthly life is a mere preparation and test. Decorated with the same bones they are charged with safeguarding, they pursue the Greek concept of kalokagathìa, namely to make the “good death” even aesthetically beautiful, disassembling the physical body to recompose it in pleasant and splendid arrangements and thereby transcend it.  

This highly visual lecture will explore the Catholic beliefs and theological traditions behind the ossuaries, allowing a deeper understanding of these sacred spaces charged with fear and fascination. 

Ivan Cenzi is an explorer of the uncanny and collector of curiosities. He is the author of The Eternal Vigil on the Palermo Catacombs, De Profundis on the Fontanelle Cemetery in Naples, Mors Pretiosa on Italy’s main religious ossuaries, His Anatomical Majesty on the Museum of Pathological Anatomy in Padua, and The Petrifier on the “Paolo Gorini” Anatomical Collection in Lodi. He also wrote Paris Mirabilia and London Mirabilia. A lecturer of Iconology of Death at the University of Padua, since 2009 Ivan Cenzi is the curator of Bizzarro Bazar, a blog centered on the concept of dark wonder and the study of the macabre; he writes and hosts a web series of the same name.