Sedlec Ossue Analysis

I have had the pleasure – or guilt – of visiting the Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic. Deemed a world heritage site, the small Roman Catholic chapel hosts an underground burial site which is constructed almost entirely by bones from over 40,000 skeletons. The construction of this sight was commissioned by the Schwarzenberg family in 1870, they had a woodcarver create the macabre inspired architecture. The most shocking reaction that I have experienced was awe when I first entered into the ossuary. It was both revolting and beautiful at first glance. It was difficult to imagine that at least 40,000 people’s bones made up something that brought an emotion other than sadness to my mind. Mary Devereaux’s “Beauty and evil: the case of Leni …show more content…
If Triumph of the Will is viewed by a Nazi supporter in 1936, then they might not only not care for the purpose of the film but they might be in full agreement to the film’s – arguable - purpose. As such, to them the film may be exclusively beautiful, while in today’s perspective we may view it with mixed feelings, but even then we are already acknowledging a part of its beauty. In the case of the Sedlec Ossuary, this translates to saying that one must not necessarily have Coimetromania (Fascination with cemeteries) or Necromania (fascination with death) in order to appreciate the architecture made out of dead human beings. The question arises: why and how could we possibly overlook to the purpose of the art and still fully comprehended it and evaluate its …show more content…
For example, as a part of a 10th grade field trip, we visited Auschwitz. There, despite any of my effort to not be disgusted throughout the tour, I had no way of detaching the purpose / vision of the location from its visual appearance (granted even fully aesthetically speaking it’s not exactly beautiful) but somehow when it came to staring at a chandelier made out of at least one of each bone from the human body, I was