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I. MORTALITY AND IMMORTALITY

A. Our awareness of our mortality and the quest for immortality seem to be strictly human
phenomena.
1. Life, death, and the afterlife have always been and will continue to be intertwined
with art making
2. From ancient times to the present humans make tombs and commemorative art to
serve different purposes:
a. to express cultural ideas and values about death and the afterlife to closely tie
religion to ritual burials
to promote political and social intentions
to visually establish power
b. to guarantee honor, fame and/or glory.

II. EARLY TOMBS: MOUNDS AND MOUNTAINS

1. The earliest tombs shaped like hills or mountains.

2. Egyptians built pyramids, which were geometric mountains.
3. Others built mounds like grass-covered hills with hidden burial chambers or elite
members a society.
4. Mound graves were often tied to natural phenomenon, like the movement of the sun.
A. Ancient Burials
1. Funerary practices, religion, agriculture, and astronomy were often interrelated. One
of the oldest tombs is in Ireland, the late Stone Age tomb of Newgrange.
2. Newgrange is oriented so that for 2 weeks near the winter solstice, morning sunlight
radiates down through the entire passage, illuminating one patterned stone in the
burial chamber.
B. The Great Pyramids are:
a. old
b. large
influential in style oriented to the sun
the tombs of the pharaohs are part of a necropolis
c. artificial mountains
on a flat, artificial plane
1. The Great Pyramids have small interior chambers, robbed shortly after they were
sealed.
2. To thwart grave robbing pharaohs stopped building enormous tombs.
3. Later rulers were buried in chambers cut into the sides of mountains, with hidden
entrances.

III. FURNISHED TOMBS

1. Many cultures believed that the afterlife was similar to this life and that the dead
continued to “live” in the tomb and needed furnishings like those used when they
were alive.
A. Egyptian Tombs and Mortuary Temples
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1. 1000 years after the Great Pyramids, the Egyptians provided examples of furnished
tombs, which were the meeting place between earthly life and eternity.
2. According to Egyptian belief, a human possessed a soul with both a ba and a ka.
The ba is part of the soul:
a. it resides in the heart or abdomen
b. it is depicted as a human- headed bird
c. when humans take their last breath, the ba flies from the body
d. after 70 days of mummification the ba returns, hungry and thirsty
3. A well-prepared tomb is filled with provisions to satisfy the needs of the ba in the
afterlife.
4. The ka is the mental aspect of the human soul.
5. The ka:
a. is symbolized by outstretched arms
b. or symbolized by an attendant figure that represents the double of the personality
c. dwells in a lifelike statue of the deceased
6. Both the statue and the sarcophagus have to have strong likeness of the dead as
person, so the ba and ka could easily recognize their destinations.
7. To preserve bodies and make them recognizable, they were mummified with
8. The Innermost Coffin, was found in Tutankhamen’s tomb. It is beaten gold,
9. weighing nearly 3/4 of a ton, inlaid with semiprecious stones.
10. The wings of Horus encircle the coffin and Tutankhamen holds the insignia of his
rank.
11. He wears:
distinctive eye makeup
a. the false beard, symbol of power striped head-cloth
cobra head to frighten enemies
12. Wall paintings and carvings recreated the pleasures and labors of earthly existence.
13. The Fowling Scene, shows an Egyptian noble hunting along the Nile River.
14. Patterns are important, they are visual metaphors for:
b. the cycles of the Nile the unchanging culture the vast desert
15. Depth is rarely shown in ancient Egyptian paintings, everything is distributed
vertically or horizontally.
16. In this wall painting, humans dominate the scene.
17. The noble is shown in the manner reserved for exalted persons:
a. head, shoulders, legs, and feet in profile
b. eyes and shoulders frontal
c. the nobleman is larger than his wife and daughter, indicating their lower status
18. When high-ranking Egyptians began to hide tombs in hillsides, the funerary temples
were enlarged and emphasized.
19. The Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut shows this development.
20. The temple was a monument to the greatness of Egypt’s woman pharaoh.
21. The temple housed 200 statues of her, painted reliefs showing her divine birth,
coronation, military victories, and other exploits.
22. After death, Hatshepsut’s portraits were defaced, records of her rule obscured.
B. Etruscan Tombs
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1. The Etruscans were ancient people who buried their dead in earthen mounds
furnished for the afterlife similar to the Egyptians.
2. In contrast to the tombs of the Egyptians, Etruscan tombs were not grand monuments
to powerful rulers, but emphasized sociability and the pleasures of living.
3. A couple enjoys a banquet on their coffin in this freestanding sculpture.
4. The wife and husband are shown at the same scale, reclining together at a banquet,
sharing the same couch.
5. This reflects the fact that Etruscan women had more rights than women in most other
cultures.
6. Etruscans buried their dead under row after row of earthen mounds arranged along
streets in a necropolis.
7. The tombs often had several modest-sized rooms, laid out much like houses.
8. Etruscan tomb art emphasizes pleasure. The pleasures of feasting, music, and
dancing.
9. Tomb walls were covered with paintings like Banqueters and Musicians, from the
Tomb of the Leopards.
10. Banqueters recline on couches while servants bring them food and drink.
11. Funeral Complex of Shi Huangdi one of the most extensive tombs ever constructed.
12. Ying Cheng became the ruler of the Qin state in 259 BCE.
13. He subdued the rival neighboring states to unify China and found the Qin Dynasty.
14. In 1974, peasants digging a well uncovered an army of 6,000 life- size clay soldiers
guarding the afterlife palace complex.
15. The torsos are hollow, the legs are solid. The bodies are standardized:
a. frontal
stiff
anatomically simplified
b. ....but every face is different and sculpted with great skill and sensitivity.
C. Royal Tombs of the Moche Civilization
1. Moche civilization extended for more than 400 miles along the Pacific Ocean in what
is modern Peru.
2. Moche society was stratified from rich to poor, reflected in their burials---from
simple shallow pits to elaborate burial chambers on pyramids.
3. This figure shows the elaborate gear worn by a warrior priest.
4. Royal Tomb of Sipán, burial site contained warrior-priest ceremonial gear---jewelry,
breastplates, weapons, and ornamental feathers.
5. The figure is dressed in a portion of objects found in the tomb:
a. cloth covered with gilded platelets
b. shell beads over his wrists and shoulders
c. helmet nose plate
d. crescent-shaped bells that jangled with every step.
6. Peanut Necklace-10 gold and 10 silver beads, the peanut was a ceremonial food or a
food of honor.
D. Viking Ship Burial
1. The Vikings were maritime raiders from Scandinavia. Their tombs reflect how
important sea travel was to their civilization.
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2. The Viking Ship was probably the private vessel of a wealthy family, intended for use
near the coast and inland waterways.
3. The graceful curves of the low, wide ship culminate in tall spiral posts at stem and
stern; the front is carved like a coiled snake.
4. Other wooden objects were found in the burial ship included
a. beds, carts, and sledges, with carvings of imaginary birds and beasts.
5. This ship burial was the tomb of a high-ranking woman.

IV. DEVELOPMENT OF CEMETERIES AND GRAVE MONUMENTS

1. During the first millennium BCE mound tombs were replaced by funerary art and
architecture.
2. Tombs became commemorative structures instead of furnished homes for the
afterlife.
3. Ancient Greeks developed the earliest commemorative funerary architecture.
4. The most common Greek monuments were:
a. small columns supporting vases, urns, small statues
b. life-size freestanding figures of young men or women
c. relief carvings on stone slabs
5. This stele depicts the deceased woman with a servant bringing her jewelry.
6. Roman family tombs and mausoleums were built outside of the city in several styles:
a. altar-tombs
b. towers
c. modified Greek temples diminutive Egyptian pyramids combinations of these
7. Funerary Relief of a Circus Official - for a working-class person’s tomb, cramped in
style, full of details, numerous characters:
a. largest figure is the official
b. wife at the far left (holding hands, a symbol of marriage)
c. wife is smaller, of lesser status
d. she stands on a pedestal, sign she died before him
8. The Romans often produced non-idealized likenesses.
9. The faces of the official and his wife are frank, unflattering portraits:
a. forehead wrinkles protruding ears
b. drooping nose and mouth
10. Christian Burials
11. Early Christians buried their dead rather than cremating them.
12. They believed the body would resurrect and rejoin the soul at the end of time.
13. Around Rome, vast underground networks called catacombs were dug out of tufa,
(like the Etruscan burial chambers).
14. The catacombs became sanctified places: martyrs were buried there
a. fugitives hid from the Romans worship services were conducted.
15. Small rooms were carved out of catacomb passageways, used as mortuary chapels.
16. They were often plastered and painted.
b. in 313 Christianity was accepted in Rome and became the official religion
17. Large churches were constructed and tombs located inside.
18. The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia was originally attached to a church.
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19. Mosaics give us a good idea of the style, imagery and decoration at the time.
20. Christianity became the official religion of Rome in 313, under the emperor
Constantine.
21. The tomb of St. Peter was the focal point of a new church, marked by a canopy in
bronze, called a baldacchino.
22. This tall canopy (baldacchino) is mounted over the tomb of St. Peter.
23. The Baldacchino:
is taller than an 8 story
a. building
b. recalls the cloth canopies that covered tombs of early martyrs
c. has curving columns that recall those Constantine placed in Old St. Peter’s
d. vine-covered, twisting columns seem to support the canopy as if weightless
24. Placidia and the Baldacchino
25. Christian church burials were periodically banned, as tombs rapidly overtook church
interiors.
26. The rich and powerful continued to be buried in the churches as they depended on
donations that accompanied the burial.
27. The poor and working classes were buried outside in cemeteries and churchyards.
28. The Chapel of Henry VII on the back of London’s Westminster Abbey, houses the
tomb of Henry VII, his wife and honor his uncle, Henry VI.
29. Built in English Perpendicular, the style is a variation of the
30. Gothic.
31. Westminster Abbey was used for royal burials until the18th C., it also houses tombs
of statesmen, military leaders, artists, and poets.
32. Mausoleums
33. The wealthy and powerful in Islamic societies were sometimes buried in mausoleums
adjoining mosques.
34. The most famous Islamic mausoleum - the Taj Mahal, final resting place of Mumtaz
Mahal.
35. Built by Shah Jahan, her husband and ruler of the Mughal Empire in India.
36. The Taj Mahal is comparable in ambition to the Baldacchino in
37. St. Peter’s and the Chapel of Henry VII.
38. The Taj Mahal sits at the north end of a walled, gated garden symbolizing Paradise:
39. Allah
a. the Taj Mahal symbolizes the throne of
b. canals divide the garden, canals symbolize the four rivers of Paradise
40. The Taj Mahal is a compact, symmetrical, centrally

V. RELIQUARIES

1. In some religions, bones, tissues, and possessions of deceased holy persons are kept
and venerated.
2. The practice was popular in medieval Europe, pilgrims would visit medieval churches
to ask special favors.
3. Fragments of clothing or body parts were kept in reliquaries, small precious shrines.
4. African reliquaries often held the remains of ancestors.
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5. Ancestors are honored as they affect the welfare of the living.

6. The Reliquary Guardian Figure from Gabon, was placed on a bag or basket that
contained the skulls and long bones of the ancestors.
7. The guardian protected relics from evil, helped obtain food, health, or fertility from
the ancestors.

VI. MODERN COMMEMORATIVE ART

1. The past 2 centuries varies and includes:

2. Monuments express: loss
a. monuments addressing personal loss memorials for groups
monuments for political leaders
b. preserve memory
transform the experience of death
3. Modern Cemeteries
4. From the middle of the 18th C. to the19th C. cemeteries in Europe reached a crisis
point.
5. Neglected churchyards, were overcrowded, unhealthy and sources of pollution.
6. Civil authorities removed control of burials from churches and established large,
suburban cemeteries that buried the deceased regardless of religion.
7. Pere Lachaise Cemetery was opened on the outskirts of Paris.
8. The design was influenced by Romanticism.
9. The cemetery was laid out with paths, massive trees.
10. Families constructed elaborate structures, using Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine,
Gothic, modern, and art nouveau styles.
11. Urns, columns, and obelisks were often used. Their exotic qualities a further
manifestation of Romanticism.
12. Many famous figures are buried here, making the cemetery a tourist attraction.
13. Compare Ophelia*, with the monuments in Pere Lachaise Cemetery.
14. Ophelia is contemporary with many of the monuments in P re Lachaise Cemetery.
15. *Ophelia is a character Shakespeare’s Hamlet, she becomes incapacitated from grief
and later drowns.
16. Ophelia exhibits a:
pose and flower-strewn dress that suggest a casket lack of the grisly details of
madness
lack of the grim condition of the body by drowning tragic and poetic feeling.
17. At Pere Lachaise Cemetery, many monuments echo the sensibilities expressed in this
painting.
18. Contemporary Memorial Art and Practices
19. Today art and rituals of death serve:
a. social
b. political personal needs
20. Kane Kwei’s workshop produces personalized coffins for Ghana locals and for
people all around the world.
21. His coffins are designed:
to reflect the life work
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a. to reflect the values

to honor the deceased
22. This is a coffin crafted for a coca tree farmer, which memorialized the life’s work of
the deceased.
23. A social tradition, the
24. Day of the Dead is celebrated in Mexico and parts of the United States.
25. Christian and Aztec beliefs are mixed together in Mexican celebrations of the dead.
26. In public, marketplaces are sites for parades and celebrations.
27. In private homes, altars honor the deceased, with incense, pictures of the dead and
their favorite foods.
28. Families may spend the night at the graveyard, decorating the gravesites, burning
many candles.
29. The atmosphere of Day of the Dead invites political satire and commentary.
30. Hanging in the background are satirical skulls and skeletons of:
a. a priest
b. a general a capitalist a laborer
31. On New Ireland and nearby islands, villagers hold memorial festivals to
commemorate deceased clan members.
32. Sculptures called malanggan are carved for the occasions.
33. Honoring the dead requires effort and wealth but it:
a. stimulates local economy
b. creates stronger alliances among villages
c. and clans
d. includes initiation rites for young men
34. The Mausoleum of Mao Zedong houses the body of the leader of the Communist
revolution and asserts the authority of the Communist government.
35. The alignment of the mausoleum with the Forbidden City and Imperial Palace is
meant to signify the Communist leaders claim as rightful successors to the emperors.
36. The Names Project organized the AIDS Memorial Quilt, a commemorative work with
a personal and political impact.
37. Composed of individual 3 x 6 ft. panels, decorated by friends or family.
38. The quilts communicate the enormity of the epidemic and its toll in the United States.
39. This huge, collaborative work commemorates the loss of loved ones to a deadly
disease.
40. Tribute in Light projected two powerful beams of light into the night sky where the
twin towers of the World Trade Center once stood.
41. Tribute in Light has been recreated each year on the anniversary of the attacks.
42. The beams reference hope and aspiration---because of their immateriality, they refer
to the transitory nature and vulnerability of earthly things.
43. The World Trade Center is being rebuilt.
44. The design includes a ring of lower office buildings and the large Freedom Tower, a
tapering, twisting sky- scraper, topped by a superstructure and a spire.
45. The Freedom Tower, 1,776 feet tall, commemorates the year of the Declaration of
Independence, symbolizes the spirit of the United States.
46. The area in the middle of the ring of buildings contains a tree-covered plaza and
permanent memorial.
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47. There is a museum dedicated to those who died on September 11, 2001.
48. Michael Arad and Peter Walker’s design was chosen for the permanent memorial,
Reflecting Absence.
49. It consists of two sunken reflecting pools that mark the footprints of the old towers
and includes inscriptions of the victims’ names.