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The art of death visual culture in the English death ritual c.1500-c.1800 Nigel Llewellyn

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublication details: London Reaktion in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum 1991ISBN:
  • 0948462167
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 704.948 LLE
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode
Standard Loan LSAD Library Main Collection 704.948 LLE (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 39002000109208

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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.

Bibliography: p146-150. - Includes index

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

  • Introduction
  • I The Object of Commemoration
  • II Rites of Passage
  • III Dying, A Process
  • IV Dances of Death
  • V Examples of Virtue
  • VI Death, A Bad Business
  • VII Two Bodies
  • VIII Body Language
  • IX The Natural Body and its Fate
  • X Funerals: The Declaration of Difference
  • XI Heraldic Displays
  • XII Funereal Paraphernalia
  • XIII Liturgies
  • XIV Worn Out and In
  • XV Objects of Mourning
  • XVI The Monumental Body
  • XVII Kinds of Monument
  • XVIII Image Theory
  • XIX Epilogue
  • References
  • Select Bibliography
  • List of Illustrations
  • Acknowledgements
  • Index

Author notes provided by Syndetics

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.

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