Monday, 3 June 2002

Funerary art gives you a peek at social, intellectual, and other cultural or cognitive trends that historians didn't see fit to document, as they were too busy living (or dying) them. Colonial America was a dynamic time and place, and the people left vivid illustrations of their perceptions of and ways of dealing with death.

What got me all excited about these is the ways that bodies and spirits are dealt with: as time progresses and as you draw closer away from the cities representation of the human form becomes taboo. Very early headstones might portray actual skulls and references to "remains" or "decay," I've even found one or two caskets carved onto grave markers. Skulls become wacky alien-heads, later growing wings, then start looking alot like Killroy (was here), as the representation of the human form became taboo. Later (or closer to those trend-setting metropolitan centers), tributes are made to a person's memory or professional attributes, and angels are replaced by weeping willows and urns. Grave markers can be vivid illustrations of a family's relationship to their place and time, especially when they rebel against the norm. Go, death rebels!

These are a few of my favourites.