How do different religious beliefs influence how death is presented in Art

HOW DO DIFFERENT RELIGIOUS BELIEFS INFLUENCE HOW DEATH IS REPRESENTED IN ART?

Safia Iyer (OHS), Alice McDade (WHS), Beth Warren (OHS) At the Wellcome Collection there are several artefacts which show how religion has influenced how death is represented in art. Works found in both the Medicine Man, specifically the End of Life exhibit, and the Misbehaving Bodies exhibit show the stark contrasts between how death is regarded in different religions and the media used, which differ due to varied religious standpoints, the time periods, and cultures of the artists.

The Buddhist ceremonial headdress, originally from Nepal, now found in the Medicine Man exhibit, demonstrates the clear influence of the Buddhist belief that death is to be embraced through its design and materials. The headdress would have been used in Secular Buddhist ceremonies and was made roughly between 1701-1900. The headdress incorporates a human skull, adorned with coloured coral beads, brown cloth and metal. This garment, as well as many other similar designs found in Nepal from the same time period, was designed to demonstrate to people that death is not something to be feared and should be incorporated into everyday life. Similarly, in Tibetan Buddhist rituals, young men are made to wear initiation headdresses, with skulls represented by painted gilt and leather. The skulls are symbolic to show that a Buddhist must overcome their attachment to life and subsequent fear of death in order to become free from the cycle of reincarnation. In both cases, and many others, the decorative aspects of headdresses help to incorporate skulls into ordinary garments, normalizing the concept of death, therefore supporting the salient Buddhist principle.

In comparison, a Vanitas is a European piece of symbolic art which represents the quick succession of death from life, and the futility of life. This tradition of symbolic art is linked heavily to the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible, showing how this one religious text plays such an important role in shaping the acceptance of 18th Century Christians towards death.

The 18th Century Vanitas wax and cloth tableau from the Medicine Man exhibit in the Wellcome Collection, depicts half a human face combined with half a human skull, demonstrating to viewers the transience of life. Its morbid appearance, of a pale white and dulled colour palette, emphasises the quick progression to death, as both sides are aesthetically similar. On the side of the skull there is a spider, insect and snail, representing the reality of the decay and abandonment of the human return to nature after death. There is also a Latin inscription on the base of the tableau reading, “Vanitas Vanitatum et omnia Vanitas” from the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes (the inscription reads, “Vanity of Vanities and all is Vanity”). This artwork was designed for European Christians of the 18th Century, to which this inscription would have been highly important, because it reminds them that life, pleasure and vanity are indeed all futile, just like in the book of Ecclesiastes where the pointlessness of human activity is a major theme, therefore reinforcing their acceptance of death.

Not only does religion affect the way death is represented in art, but the lack of religion also impacts how artists treat the subject matter of death. Jo Spence’s aim in her collection of work, The Final Project was to create images through photography, the written word and media articles, that represented the honesty of death. This collection of work was the last thing that Jo Spence created before she passed away after suffering from leukaemia for 10 years. All three artworks draw on religion to depict death in very individual, yet similar ways. A mutual focus of the embracement of death, and how it should be accepted into our lives has been created, although it has been approached from varied viewpoints. For example, the wax Vanitas and the Buddhist ceremonial headdress both depict skulls, however, the Christian artwork is made of wax, and the Buddhist artwork is made from skeletal remains. This shows that although in the Buddhist culture they embrace use of human remains and in Christian art the remains of bodies are depicted more metaphorically, both embrace the aesthetics of death, and that it should not be feared. Two of the artworks mentioned emphasize the insignificance of life and the ensuing significance of the afterlife (or rebirth). On the other hand, The Final Project, as an atheistic piece of work, shows an outright ending, disregarding ideas of possible immortality and nirvana, which by contrast shows the differences between religious views on death and atheistic views, shown in the medium of art.

Although some of her photography includes religious symbolism and theological ideas, much of her later work shows no sign of any faith. This atheistic view of the world causes her art to become very blunt, treating death as simply an end, and nothing more, which contrasts many religious beliefs of life after death. Her work includes lots of skull imagery, creating powerful and obvious statements of death, yet she also includes lots of masks in her work. The masks link to ideas of her illness and suffering not being visually obvious to those surrounding her, and that her pain and the knowledge of her impending death is hidden from the world, like a mask which hides her illness. Many of her later artworks, created by layering previous photographic films, bring to her work tranquillity and peacefulness, highlighting her slow acceptance of death. The images in which she almost appears to be floating also visually link to that of spirits and angels, with those including clouds and pale colours imitating the stereotypical view of Heaven and the Christian afterlife. Thus, her work demonstrates broader ideas about death where both religious and non-religious aspects are incorporated. Bibliography

image 1: Ceremonial headdress with a human skull, Nepal, 1701-1900 https://wellcomecollection.org/ works/ebb8hvmw [accessed on 09/10/2019]

image 2: Initiation crown with skulls https://collections. dma.org/artwork/5323534 [accessed on 09/10/2019]

image 3: Wax vanitas, Europe, 1701-1800

https://wellcomecollection.org/works/acux9qcx [accessed on 09/10/2019]

image 4: The Final Project [Mask 4], 1991 – 1992, Jo Spence https://www.richardsaltoun.com/artists/36jo-spence/works/13924-jo-spence-the-final-projectmask-4/ [accessed on 09/10/2019]

image 5: The Final Project [‘End Picture’ Floating], 1991—1992, Jo Spence https://www.richardsaltoun. com/artists/36-jo-spence/works/13936-jo-spence-thefinal-project-end-picture-floating-1991-1992/ [accessed on 09/10/2019]