Thinking about death

Death was once very close to us: illness, disaster, war. Our lives, our civilization, can be said to have been run to keep these things away.

This magnificent rosary, crafted in 16th-century Germany, is made of ivory, gold, and silver, and speaks of our fleeting nature and our constant proximity to death.
And the statue is made into an instrument of prayer - the only answer to the inevitable outcome.

The aged and cracked "Death" confronts us living in the modern age with the value of reflecting on an outcome that cannot be overcome even with the advancement of civilization.