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Saturday, November 17, 2012

The Seventh Seal



The iconic scene above is from Ingmar Bergman`s The Seventh Seal

It shows the scene of  the knight's first meeting with death

Death appears to the knight and tells him it is his time. The knight challenges Death to a chess game for his life. Part of the famous scene is at YouTube at the following link


The film is highlighted in an exhibition entitled Death: A Self-portrait which is a free exhibition at The Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, London 

The aim of the exhibition is to explore "the iconography of death and our complex and contradictory attitudes towards it."

Unfortunately the exhibition seems to take a very superficial view of the subject. It seems to adopt  a "scientific" sociological viewpoint

One "bright spot" in the exhibition is the section is "Stories from the Day Hospice"

Chrissie Giles spent time at the day hospice at Princess Alice Hospice, Esher, running a creative writing group and posted on her experiences there 

Unfortunately again there seems to be lacking a discussion of the Christian vision which underlies the modern hospice movement in Britain and in particular the work of the great Anglican Dame Cicely Saunders

One should also be aware of the sterling work in this area of the Daughters of the Cross of Liège

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