The current special exhibit at the St. Louis Art Museum combines two very different art forms and time periods to explore expressions of grief and loss and offer food for thought on being food for worms.

“The Mourners: Tomb Sculptures from the Court of Burgundy” is an exhibit of French medieval statues created to encircle the base of a nobleman’s sarcophagus. What makes the statues so fascinating over the centuries has been both their sheer number and the remarkable variety of expressions of grief and loss they portray.

Some exhibits require that visitors only view the art to take in the full effect. “The Mourners” is one for which it is essential to read the story, provided in supporting materials displayed in the exhibit, both to best appreciate the miniature statues displayed and to grasp their historical context and journey. Without the context, they look like little more than an array of tiny figures, some very eroded, arranged around a darkened room.

The mourners are small alabaster figures that were created for the tombs of the 14th and 15th century Dukes of Burgundy, who ruled over vast territories from their base in Dijon and whose patronage helped produce some of the best medieval art. The figures were produced by the court workshop under Claus Sluter, and were placed in a gothic arcade around the base of the sarcophagus. Many of the figures portray nobles of the time but others convey the range of emotion, from anguish to sadness to religious devotion to a quiet peace, in exquisite detail. The arrangement of the figures represents a funeral procession, and are arranged as if the hooded, robed figures are in a cloister. Some figures’ faces are hidden with their hoods while other have hoods lowered to reveal the face. Some dab tears, others wringing their hands.

Alabaster is softer than marble, and some of the figures have endured abuse over the years. But enough remains to make the moving, contemplative exhibit worthwhile. Information about the statues can be found at its website: Themourners.org/about.html.

To best appreciate this thought-provoking exhibit, the visitor should also take in its companion piece, “Visitation,” a video work by acclaimed artist Bill Viola.

Putting these very different works, from divergent times, together seems counter-intuitive, but in fact it works very well, as they are united by their exploration of the fundamental human emotions surrounding life and death. In the film, which plays on an endless loop, two women walk down a hallway toward a shimmering surface, which we learn is a curtain of water. They pass through the barrier, take in the world around them and then return through it and walk back down the hall.

Like nearly all video art work, “Visitation” lacks the editing and pacing of film. At 20 minutes, it seems 10 minutes too long. The action takes place in slow motion, which is riveting as the figures approach and pass through the curtain of water, but is much less so in the long walk toward and away down the hallway. The patient viewer can take in the whole work, but the essential core, the part packed with emotion, is the middle part of the scene, where the play of emotions on the faces and the movements of bodies convey layers of meaning about grief, loss, horror, life and death.

“The Mourners” and the “Bill Viola: Visitation” exhibit run through September 6. Admission is for both, at  $8 for adults, $6 for students and seniors. It is free on Fridays.