Funerary art

Tomb of Philippe Pot, governor of Burgundy under Louis XI

Funerary art is any work of art forming or placed in a repository for the remains of the dead. Our knowledge of several cultures is drawn largely from this source. Tomb is a general term for the repository, and grave goods a terms for objects placed inside it, other than the bodies; these may be the personal possessions of the person buried, or objects specially created for the burial, including miniature versions of things needed for the afterlife. A tumulus or mound covered important burials in many cultures, and the body may be placed in a sarcophagus, usually of stone, or a coffin, usually of wood. Stele is a term for erect stones that are often what we now call gravestones. Ship burials are mostly found in coastal Europe, whilst chariot burials are found widely across Eurasia. Catacombs, of which the most famous examples are those in Rome and Alexandria, are underground cemeteries connected by tunnelled passages. A related genre is the ancestor portrait, common in cultures as diverse as Ancient Rome and China, which is kept in the house of the descendants, rather than being buried.

Funerary art can serve many cultural functions, including especially as an aesthetic attempt to capture or express the beliefs or emotions about the afterlife. It can play a role in burial rites, serve as an article for use by the dead in the afterlife, celebrate the life and accomplishments of the dead, serve as a reminder of the mortality of humankind, serve as an expression of cultural values and roles, and help to propitiate the spirits of the dead, preventing their unwelcome intrusion into the affairs of the living. Many cultures have psychopomp figures, such as the Greek Hermes and Etruscan Charun, who help to conduct the spirit of the dead into the afterlife.

Funerary art goes back to the Neanderthals of over 100,000 years ago, and is known from almost all subsequent cultures - Hindu culture, which has little, is perhaps one notable exception. Many, if not most, of the best known artistic creations of past cultures, from the Egyptian pyramids and the Tutankhamun treasure to the Terracotta Army surrounding the tomb of the Qin Emperor, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the Sutton Hoo ship burial, and the Taj Mahal are tombs or objects in and around them. In most places and periods specialised funeral art is mainly produced for the powerful and wealthy, although the burials of ordinary people may include simple monuments, and grave goods, usually from their possessions in life.

Detail from a French Renaissance monument of 1547

Early societies

In Neolithic and Bronze Age societies a great variety of tombs are found, with tumulus mounds, megaliths and pottery as recurrent elements. In Eurasia, Dolmens seem often to be the exposed stone framework for a chamber tomb originally covered by earth to make a mound which no longer exists. Stones may be carved with geometric patterns (petroglyphs), for example Cup and ring marks. Group tombs were made, the social context of which is hard to decypher. Urn burials, where bones are buried in a pottery container, either in a more elaborate tomb, or by themselves, are widespread. Menhirs, or "standing stones", seem often to mark a grave, whilst the later runestones and image stones often are cenotaphs, or memorials detatched from the grave itself; these continue into the Christian period.

Ancient Egypt

Egyptian coffin mask made of wood and glass, from the New Kingdom, dated to Dynasty 18 or 19 (1550-1196 BC)

Egyptian funerary art was inseparably connected to the belief that lif continues after death, that in order to make the journey from this life to the next one's image must be preserved. The Valley of the Kings became established as a necropolis for royal and elite tombs from about 1500 BCE; the Theban Necropolis was another important site for Mortuary temples. Individual portraiture of the deceased is found extremely early on. The intention was to commemorate the life of the tomb owner, provide supplies necessary for the afterlife, depict performance of the burial rites, and in general present an environment that would be conducive to the tomb owner's rebirth. There is a special category of Ancient Egyptian funerary texts, which clarify the purposes of the burial customs. The Egyptian mummy, encased in one or more layers of coffin, is famous; the Canopic jars contained several internal organs.

Common citizens had access to pieces of funerary art, such as shabti statues and books of the dead, which they believed would protect them in the afterlife. During the Middle Kingdom, miniature wooden or clay models depicting scenes from everyday life became popular additions to the tomb. In an attempt to duplicate the activities of the living in the afterlife, these models show laborers, houses, boats, and even military formations that are scale representations of the ideal ancient Egyptian afterlife.

Ancient Greece

Relief from a carved funerary lekythos at Athens: Hermes conducts the deceased, Myrrhine, to Hades, ca 430-420 BCE.

The ancient Greeks did not generally leave very elaborate grave goods, except for a coin in the hand to pay Charon, the ferryman to Hades, and pottery; however the epitaphios or funeral oration (from which epitaph comes) was regarded as of great importance, and animal sacrifices were made. But those who could afford them erected stone monuments, which was one of the functions of kouros statues in the Archaic period before about 500BCE. These were not intended as portraits, but during the Classical period realistic portraiture of the deceased was introduced, and family groups were often depicted in bas-relief on monuments, usually surrounded by an architectural frame. The walls of tomb chambers were often painted in fresco, although few examples have survived in as good condition as the Tomb of the Diver from southern Italy. Almost the only surviving painted portraits in the classical Greek tradition are found in Egypt rather than Greece. The Fayum mummy portraits, from the very end of the classical period, were portrait faces attached to mummies in an area of Egypt with a large population of Graeco-Roman descent.

Tombs were frequently decorated with pottery. The larnax is a small coffin or ash-chest, usually of decorated terracotta. The two-handled loutrophoros was primarily associated with weddings, as it was used to carry water for the nuptial bath. However, it was also placed in the tombs of the unmarried, "presumably to make up in some way for what they had missed in life." The one-handled lekythos had many household uses, but outside the household its principal use was for decoration of tombs. Scenes of a descent to the underworld of Hades were often painted on these, with the dead depicted beside Hermes, Charon or both — though usually only with Charon. Small pottery figurines are often found, though it is hard to decide if these were made especially for placing in tombs; in the case of the Hellenistic Tanagra figurines this seems probably not the case. But silverware is more often found around the fringes of the Greek world, as in the royal Macedonian tombs of Vergina, or in the neighbouring cultures like those of Thrace or the Scythians.

Etruscan

The Etruscan "Sarcophagus of the Spouses", at the National Etruscan Museum.

Objects connected with death, especially sarcophagi and cinerary urns, are the source of much of our knowledge of the ancient Etruscan civilization, which initially competed with the culture of ancient Rome but was eventually absorbed into it. The sarcophagi and the lids of the urns often incorporate a reclining image of the deceased. The reclining figures in some Etruscan funerary art are shown using the mano cornuta to protect the grave.

The motif of the funerary art of the 7th and 6th centuries BC was typically a feasting scene, sometimes with dancers and musicians, or athletic competitions. Household bowls cups and pitchers are sometimes found in the graves, along with foodstuffs such as "actual eggs, pomegranates, honey, grapes and olives" for their use in the afterlife." From the 5th century, however, the mood changed to more somber and even gruesome scenes of parting, where the deceased are shown leaving their loved ones, often surrounded by underworld demons such as Charun or the winged female Vanth. The underworld figures are sometimes depicted as gesturing impatiently for a human to be taken away. The handshake was another common motif, as the dead took leave from the living. This often took place in front of or near closed double doorway, presumably the portal to the underworld. Evidence in some art, however, suggests that the "handshake took place at the other end of the journey, and represents the dead being greeted in the Underworld".

Ancient Rome

Somewhat fantastical imagined depiction of the Appian Way in ancient times; it is lined with tomb monuments for many miles out of Rome. By Gianbattista Piranesi

The burial customs of the ancient Romans were influenced by both of the first significant cultures whose territories they conquered as their state expanded, namely the ancient Greeks and the Etruscans. The original Roman custom was cremation, after which the burnt remains were kept in a pot, ash-chest or urn, often in a columbarium. From about the second century CE, inhumation (burial of unburnt remains) in sarcophagi, often elaborately carved, became more fashionable for those who could afford them. Greek-style portrait sculptures on a monument which housed either an urn or sarcophagus were often placed in a location such as a roadside where it would be very visible to those still living, and perpetuate the memory of the dead.

In later periods, life-size sculptures of the deceased reclining as though at a meal or social gathering are found; a common Etruscan style. Family tombs for the grandest late Roman families were large mausoleums with facilities for visits by the living, even including kitchens and bedrooms. The Castel Sant'Angelo, built for Hadrian, was later converted into a fortress. Compared to the Etruscans, though, there was less emphasis on provision of a life-style for the deceased, although paintings of useful objects or pleasant activities, like hunting, are seen. Ancestor portraits, usually in the form of carved busts, were kept in the home, apparently often in little cupboards.

China

File:Northern Wei Stone Sarcophagus.JPG

A Chinese Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534 AD) stone sarcophagus. The incised artwork displays the story of the filial grandson Yuan Gu, who saved his grandfather from being abandoned in the woods.

Funerary art varied greatly across Chinese history: tombs of early rulers rival the ancient Egyptians for complexity, and the value of the grave goods, and have been equally pillaged over the centuries by tomb robbers. For a long time literary references to Jade burial suits were regarded by scholars as fanciful myths, but a number of examples were excavated in the 20th century, and it is now believed that they were relatively common among early rulers. Knowledge of pre-dynastic Chinese culture has been expanded by spectacular discoveries at Sanxingdui and other sites. Very large tumuli could be erected, and later mausoleums. Several special large shapes of Shang dynasty bronze ritual vessels may have been made for burial only; the Tomb of Fu Hao is one of the few undisturbed royal tombs of the period to have been excavated - most bronzes have appeared on the art market without archaeological context.

Sculptures of guardian figures, whether the terracotta army or later Buddhist deity figures, are common. Early burial customs show a strong belief in an afterlife, and a spirit path to it that needed facilitating. Funerals and memorials were also an opportunity to reaffirm important cultural values such as filial piety and "the honor and respect due to seniors, the duties incumbent on juniors" The common Chinese funerary symbol of a woman in the door may represent a "basic male fantasy of an elysian afterlife with no restrictions: in all the doorways of the houses stand available women looking for newcomers to welcome into their chambers" Han Dynasty inscriptions often describe the filial mourning for their subjects, for example this portion of the text from a funeral stele for the daughter of a scholar-official of the Han Dynasty:, which described the "hurt and grief" of her two sons:

不享遐年	She did not enjoy old age
以永春秋	With long years
往而不返	She is gone and will not return,
濳淪天幽	She has sunken deep into the great darkness.
嗚呼哀哉	Alas, sorrowful indeed!
凡席虛設	Tables and mats are set but unused,
幃帳空陳	The curtains and canopies have been put out in vain.
品物猶在	Her things are still there,
不見其人	We do not see her person.
魂氣飄飄	Her ghost drifts about.
焉所安神	How could we pacify her spirit?

The Americas

A funerary urn in the shape of a "bat god" or a jaguar, from Oaxaca, dated to AD 300 - 650. Height: 9.5 in (23 cm).

Pre-Columbian American cultures produced a wide range of funerary art. The significance of the astonishing Maya figure of the Bat God (shown right) was suggested by Dr. J. Alden Mason in an article of 1929 from analogies in Maya thought.

The Bat God was one of the important deities of the Maya, many elements of whose religion were shared also by the Zapotec. The Bat God in particular is known to have been revered also by the Zapotec, but was not recognized by the Toltec and Aztec of the Valley of Mexico. He was especially associated, among the Maya at least, with the underworld, and with worship of, and in, caves. It is therefore quite natural that bat figures should be encountered in a cave temple. The dog, among the Maya, was considered to be connected with death, and to be the messenger to prepare the way to the hereafter.

The Naj Tunich cave tombs and other sites contain paintings, carved stelae, and grave goods in pottery, jade and metal, including death masks.

The Mimbres of the Mogollon culture buried their dead with bowls on top of their heads and ceremonially "killed" each bowl with a small hole in the center so that the deceased's spirit could arise to another world... Mimbres *funerary bowls show scenes of hunting, gambling, planting crops, fishing, making love and giving birth.

Medieval and Renaissance wall tombs in Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, including an equestrian statue at the left.

19th century bourgeois family tombs at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris

Brick Samanid Mausoleum, ca. 910, Bokhara

Türbe of Roxelana, Süleymaniye Mosque,Istanbul

Turkish gravestones, capped by a turban, in Istanbul

Funerary bust of a woman of Palmyra. Mid-late 2nd century.

Detail of a stone sarcophagus in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum showing a hunting scene.

Christianity

The Catacombs of Rome contain most of the Christian art of the Early Christian period, mainly in the form of frescos and sculpture. This shows a Christian iconography emerging, initially from Roman popular decorative art, but later borrowing from official Imperial and pagan motifs. The Early Christian habit, after the end of persecution, of building churches, most famously St Peter's, Rome, over the burial place of martyrs who had originally been buried discreetly, or in a mass grave, perhaps led to the most distinctive feature of Christian funerary art, the church monument, or tomb inside a church. Most cultures have avoided mixing temples and cemeteries (though see below for Islamic culture).

Christians believed in a bodily Resurrection of the dead at the Second Coming of Christ, and the Catholic Church has only relaxed its opposition to cremation in recent decades. Although mass ossuaries have also been used, burial has always been the preferred Christian tradition, at least until recent times. Burial was, for as long as there was room, usually in a graveyard adjacent to the church, with a gravestone or horizontal slab, or for the wealthy, or important clergy, inside it. "Wall tombs" in churches strictly include the body itself, often in a sarcophagus, whilst often the body is buried in a crypt or under the church floor, and there is a monument on the wall. Important people, especially monarchs, might be buried in a free-standing sarcophagus, perhaps surrounded by an elaborate enclosure using metalwork and sculpture. The monument to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor in the Hofkirche, Innsbruck took decades to complete, whereas the tomb of Saint Dominic in Bologna took several centuries to reach its final form.

The Tomb of Antipope John XXIII in Florence is a very grand Early Renaissance wall tomb by Donatello and Michelozzo, but though classical in style, it reflects the somewhat unharmonious stacking up of different elements typical of major Gothic tombs. It has a life-size effigy lying on the sarcophagus, which was common from the Romanesque period through to the Baroque and beyond. The Scaliger tombs in Verona are the most magnificent free-standing Gothic canopied tombs - they are outside the church, in a special enclosure, and so unrestricted in height. Important churches like Saint Peter's in Rome, Saint Paul's Cathedral, London, Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice (twenty-five Doges), and the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence contain large numbers of impressive monuments to the great and the good, for which the finest architects and sculptors available were employed. Local parish churches are also often full of monuments, which may include large and artistically significant ones for local landowners and notables. Often a prominent family would add a special chapel for their use, including their tombs; in Catholic countries bequests would pay for masses to be said in perpetuity for their souls.

From the early 13th century to the 16th, a popular form of monument north of the Alps, especially for the smaller landowner and merchant classes, was the Monumental brass, a sheet of brass on which the image of the person or persons commemorated was engraved, often with inscriptions and an architectural surround. They could be on the floor or wall, inside a church. These provide valuable evidence as to changes in costume, especially for women. Many bishops, and even some German rulers, were commemorated with brasses.

The castrum doloris was a temporary catafalque erected around the coffin for the lying in state of important people, usually in a church, the funerary version of the elaborate temporary decorations for other court festivities, like royal entries. A particular feature in Poland was the coffin portrait, a bust-length painted portrait of the deceased, attached to the coffin but removed before burial, and often then hung in the church.

By the 19th century many Old World churchyards and church walls had completely run out of room for new monuments, and cemeteries on the outskirts of the city, town or village became the usual place for burials. The rich developed the classical styles of the ancient world for small family tombs, whilst the rest continued to use gravestones or what were now usually false sarcophagi, placed over an underground coffin burial. Where burials in church crypts or floors took place, memorial stained glass windows, mostly on normal religious subjects but with a commemorative panel, are often found. War memorials, other than on the site of a battle, were relatively unusual until the 19th century, but became increasingly common during it, and after the First World War were erected even in villages of the main combatant nations.

Islam

Islamic funerary art is dominated by architecture. Grave goods are discouraged, and royalty and important religious figures are typically buried in plain stone sarcophagi, perhaps with a religious inscription. In the Persian sphere a tradition of mausoleums evolved, often in the shape of short hexagonal or octagonal domed towers, like the Malek Tomb. These developed into larger buildings in the Timurid and Mughal Empires, like the Gur-e Amir tomb of Timur at Samarkand, and the famous Mughal tombs, which culminate in the Taj Mahal. The Mughal tombs are mostly set in a large walled garden, with a gatehouse, and often pavilions at the corners, and may have minarets although they do not normally function as mosques. The Tomb of Jahangir lacks a dome completely, and the Tomb of Akbar the Great has only small decorative ones. Other Islamic Indian rulers built similar tombs, of which the Gol Gumbaz is perhaps the most remarkable.

In all this tradition the contemporary architectural style for mosques is adapted for a building with a smaller main room, and usually no courtyard. Decoration is often tilework, and can include pietre dure inlays in semi-precious stone, painting, and decorative carving. The sarcophagus may be in a small inner chamber, dimly visible through a grille of metal or stone, or may stand in the main room. Money would be bequeathed to pay for continuous readings of the Qu'ran in the mausoleum, and they were normally open for visitors to pay their respects. The Mausoleum of Khomeini, still under construction in a Tehran cemetery, and intended to be the centre of a huge complex, continues these traditions.

The tradition evolved rather differently in the Ottoman world, where much smaller single-roomed türbe typically stand in the grounds of mosque complexes, often built by the deceased. The sarcophagi may be draped in fine cloth, and surmounted by a real cloth or stone turban, which is also traditional at the top of ordinary Turkish gravestones. Several of the most famous are in the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul.

In the Arab world mausoleums are more likely to be a side-room inside a mosque, or form part of a larger complex containing perhaps a hospital, madrasa or library. Large domes, elaborately decorated inside, are common. The tomb-mosque of Sultan Qaitbay (died 1496) is a famous example, though here the tomb chamber is unusually large compared to the whole.

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External links

• Islamic tombs and shrines, from the United States Naval academy