Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead, Nov. 1–2) Collection Highlight: The Human skull (calavarea) is a quintessential symbol of death. Making this macabre object beautiful and sweet with color, flowers, and sugar communicates the dual message of the Día de los Muertos: remember death, but celebrate life and the community between living and dead. Decorated sugar skulls, some with a name inscribed on the forehead, can be given to either the living or the dead, and in the latter case are placed on the altar or ofrenda. Skulls, animated skeletons, and confines are ubiquitous decorations around the Day of the Dead, serving as the humorous icons (and sometimes political symbols, invoking death as the great leveler of the social classes) of what has become a very significant community festival in Mexico. This ceramic figurine of a skeletal baker with his brick oven and breads ready for offering on the altars of the dead, complete with a skeletal dog thief, is typical of this genre of black humor. ~ Excerpt from our current special exhibit catalogue In Remembrance of Me: Feasting with the Dead in the Ancient Middle East (https://oi.uchicago.edu/museum-exhibits/special-exhibits/remembrance-me-feasting-dead-ancient-middle-east). Both of these objects are currently on display in the special exhibits gallery.
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 21:00:01 +0000
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