Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 Assistant Professor. Department of Painting, Faculty of Art, Soore University, Tehran, Iran
2 Master of Photography. Faculty of Art, Soore University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
One of the most important examples related to the representation of death in art is a genre in the history of photography called "Postmortem photography". In this type of photograph, deceased people realistically return to their families, as if they are alive and close to other family members. The preparation of these photos was a time-consuming and expensive process, during which the deceased person was put on makeup and prepared to be photographed in a staged place. The peak and decline of this genre is parallel to one of the most important British political and cultural eras, which is known as the "Victorian Era" and was especially popular in the second half of the 19th century in England and some other countries, including America. In this genre, photography of the dead had become widespread and became a custom in the mourning of this era. Now the issue here is how this genre was formed and in what artistic tendencies was it rooted?
Historically, the recording of the face and body of the dead has an ancient background in which the mummy tradition of the ancient Egyptians is undeniable, which, due to the connection with the Roman Empire, played an important role in transferring the image of the afterlife to Christian Europe. Among the most important of them were the decorated plaster death masks. A tradition that continued until BC; But the transfer of the tradition of the death mask to Europe was not only through Egypt, and in some regions of Greece, the death mask was also one of the ceremonial requirements of funeral and religious ceremonies. After the Greeks, the Romans also depicted death abundantly and in various ways, a tradition that can be identified in connection with the Egyptian death mask tradition in the Fayum portraits. In the Middle Ages, a new form of the image of death became popular, which was the result of the widespread plague in Europe known as the "Black Death". Further, with the weakening of the church and the power of religion, a new era of scientism and humanism was formed, which also affected the representation of death in art. Once again, death masks appeared in 15th century Florence, and gradually a new form of the image of death became popular in Europe, including England. In the 18th century, the post-mortem image became increasingly popular in England, and English privileged families used the image of their ancestors, including post-death or mourning portraits. In the 19th century, the theory of phrenology greatly influenced the genre of photography of the dead. Proponents of phrenology theory believe that death masks reveal the external characteristics and inner truth of a person. As a result, it can be said that there is a significant connection between the photography of the dead and the pictorial tradition of mummies, death masks, death dance and Renaissance mourning portraits in Europe and after. This shows how beliefs persist in the form of artistic media over time.
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