Death and Afterlife in Art History

Art conveys the values and beliefs of a culture, including prevailing attitudes toward death and the afterlife. Often imagery associated with death and the afterlife will contain religious symbolism or iconography, because religions tend to be occupied with questions related to human mortality and the nature of the soul. Some cultures were preoccupied with preparations for death and the afterlife, and have left behind a panoply of objects testifying to their beliefs and practices. For example, Egyptian art includes richly decorated tombs, mummies, sarcophagi, and urns. Other cultures like Christianity link death directly with the role of God. European Christian art from the medieval period onwards stresses the central image of Jesus dying on the cross, and that death is either depicted in a bloody and vivid fashion or it is depicted as a spiritual transition from the mundane world to the world of the spirit. Finally, some works of art personify death itself, revealing the fear or ambivalence surrounding mortality.

For instance, a piece that appears in the Jensen book is French medieval painting called Denise Poncher before a Vision of Death, which shows three women: one is kneeling on the ground and the other two appear to have been thrown backwards by their own fear. Before them all is the skeletal scepter of death personified as the "grim reaper." Death occupies the primary focus of the composition and his figure stretches from top to bottom of the canvas, his scythes from side to side. The two completely prone girls have a look of utter fear and horror on their faces, whereas the woman in the foreground appears more peaceful or even as if she wishes to appease death himself. The painting shows the different ways human beings think about death.

In the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a 14th century Italian painting rendered in gold tooling depicts two distinct panels: one with Mother Mary holding baby Jesus and the other with the dead or dying wounded Christ. The composition juxtaposes birth and death, the two poles of human life. Moreover, the artist suggests that death and birth are closely connected concepts. The dead and wounded Christ is bleeding and appears to be in pain with his furrowed brow, showing that death is known to be a painful experience even for a deity. Unlike the French medieval work, this work does not personify death.

The Penn Museum collection houses several examples of Egyptian art and archaeology that celebrates this culture's fascination with death and the afterlife. In addition to tomes about the transition between life and death, the Egyptians produced innumerable objects of art that have some connection with preparing the body for death. One of those objects is the canopic jar. Canopic jars like the ones in the Penn Museum collection are generally made of stone or some other durable material and were designed to hold the innards of the deceased, which are removed prior to mummification. The canopic jars are decorated, and usually their lids depict a human head. Egyptians are of course famous for their mummies, and the Penn collection houses a few including one belonging to an unknown person from the Twenty-First Dynasty. This mummy case is plated in gold, as is the Italian painting depicting Jesus. The wooden box is in the shape of a human body and is ornately painted with Egyptian iconography. Unlike the European versions of death-themed art, though, the Egyptian materials are practical in nature and reveal no sense of fear or trepidation surrounding death.