Viewing coffin
A coffin for viewing is a miniaturized coffin which, as a meditation object, is intended to make the viewer aware of their own transience ( memento mori ).
Viewing coffins can be detected from the 17th century to the 19th century and possibly go back to miniature coffins from the so-called Wunderkammer .
The coffins made of wood or metal were sometimes carried as pendants or in the pocket, larger specimens were more used for setting up (so-called table coffins ). Regardless of their size, they were provided with a movable lid and a corpse made of wax, later made of wood, as well as toads, snakes, etc. In some cases they also contained miniatures of nuns in regalia, which may have been common in the Bavarian Forest .
In general, observation coffins were found in the Alpine region - the Val Gardena carvers were well-known manufacturers - but also as far as northern Germany. Elaborately decorated specimens are known from England.
Easy viewing coffin
literature
- Ulrike Neurath-Sippel, Jutta Schuchard, Reiner Sörries: Transience for the back pocket: miniature coffins and coffin for viewing. [Exhibition catalog Museum for Sepulchral Culture .] Kassel, 2005. ISBN 3924447292
- Reiner Sörries: coffin in pious folk customs. In: Museum for Sepulchral Culture (ed.): From the dead tree to the designer coffin. On the cultural history of the coffin from antiquity to the present. [Exhibition catalog Museum for Sepulchral Culture.] Kassel 1993. pp. 77–82
- Leo Runggaldier: The viewing coffin. An old Val Gardena wood carving. In: Der Schlern 9-10, 1959, 384-385