Art of Death: Visual Culture in the English Death Ritual c.1500 - c.1800

Llewellyn, Nigel

ISBN 10: 0948462167 / ISBN 13: 9780948462160

Published by Reaktion Books, 1997

About this Item

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Seller Inventory # Q-0948462167

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Art of Death: Visual Culture in the English Death Ritual c.1500 - c.1800
• Publisher: Reaktion Books
• Publication Date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0948462167
• ISBN 13: 9780948462160
• Binding: paperback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 14 ounces

About this title

Synopsis

How did our ancestors die? Whereas in our own day the subject of death is usually avoided, in pre-Industrial England the rituals and processes of death were present and immediate. People not only surrounded themselves with memento mori, they also sought to keep alive memories of those who had gone before. This continual confrontation with death was enhanced by a rich culture of visual artifacts. In The Art of Death, Nigel Llewellyn explores the meanings behind an astonishing range of these artifacts, and describes the attitudes and practices which lay behind their production and use.

Illustrated and explained in this book are an array of little-known objects and images such as death's head spoons, jewels and swords, mourning-rings and fans, wax effigies, church monuments, Dance of Death prints, funeral invitations and ephemera, as well as works by well-known artists, including Holbein, Hogarth and Blake.

About the Author

Nigel Llewellyn is Lecturer in the History of Art at the University of Sussex, and has curated an exhibition entitled ’The Art of Death’, to be held at the Victoria and Albert Museum.