Modern Cemeteries From the middle of the eighteenth century and into the nineteenth century, cemeteries within cities in Europe reached a crisis point. Expanding cities began to overtake neglected churchyards, which were overcrowded with graves that were seen as unhealthy and sources of pollution. As a result, civil authorities gradually removed control of burial practices from the churches and established new, large, suburban cemeteries that buried the dead, regardless of their religion. In Italy, the new cemeteries were rigidly organized in tight grids. In contrast, we will focus on the northern Europeans, who favored the picturesque cemetery, like the Père Lachaise Cemetery (Fig. 8.23 ), which opened on the outskirts of Paris in 1804. Its design was influenced by Romanticism, a major art and cultural movement of the nineteenth century that emphasized a return to a simpler, rural way of life, just as the Industrial Revolution was creating increasingly packed cities, greater pollution, and mechanization of life. The cemetery was laid out with meandering paths on a hilly site, with massive trees overhead. As families could own plots in perpetuity, they often constructed elaborate and fantastic structures, running the gamut from Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Gothic to modern art nouveau styles. Urns, columns, and obelisks abound. Their exotic qualities are further manifestations of Romanticism. The famous and the obscure are buried together here, making the cemetery a national tourist attraction, like many burial places in this chapter. Now compare Ophelia (Fig. 8.24 ), painted by John Everett Millais in 1852, which is contemporary with some of the monuments in Père Lachaise Cemetery. Ophelia, a character in the Shakespearean play Hamlet, becomes incapacitated from grief and later drowns. This painting exhibits the same feeling toward picturesque nature that is apparent in Père Lachaise Cemetery, with deep color, lushness, accurate detail, and extraordinary delicacy. Ophelia's pose and flower-strewn dress already suggest the casket. The whole scene is lacking in the grisly details of madness and death by drowning; rather, it is permeated with tragedy and poetic feeling. At Père Lachaise Cemetery, many monuments echo the sensibilities expressed in this painting, with sculptures of family members reaching for each other or lying together in death. LEON CHEYL 8.23 Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, opened 1804. This cemetery's design was influenced by nineteenth-century European Romanticism. Next > Etruscan Tombs It is interesting to compare Egyptian funerary practices with those of other cultures. The Etruscans were another ancient people who buried their dead in earthen mounds furnished for the afterlife. The Etruscan civilization was a loose band of city-states in west-central Italy. It developed in the eighth and seventh centuries BCE, flourished, and then was overtaken by the expanding Roman Empire in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. Around the city of Cerveteri, the Etruscans buried their dead under row after row of earthen mounds arranged along "streets" in a necropolis. The Etruscan tombs often had several modest-sized rooms, laid out much like houses. These tomb chambers were carved directly out of the soft bedrock, called tufa. Furnishings, such as chairs and beds and utensils, were sometimes carved in relief on the underground rock surfaces. They simulated a domestic interior. In contrast to those of other civilizations, the Etruscan tombs are not grand monuments to powerful rulers but reminders of a society that emphasized sociability and the pleasures of living. The freestanding terra-cotta sculpture Sarcophagus with Reclining Couple (Fig. 8.8 ), c. 520 BCE, comes from a tomb in Cerveteri. The clay sarcophagus, with life-size figures, was molded in four pieces. The wife and husband are shown at the same scale, reclining together at a banquet, sharing the same couch. This reflects the fact that Etruscan women had more rights than women in most other cultures. The facial features are similar and standardized on both figures, and their hair is represented as a geometric pattern. Their bodies are somewhat flattened and unformed from the waist down. Despite these unnatural features, the wife and husband still give the impression of alert liveliness, health, and vigor. Their gestures are very animated. Etruscan tomb art emphasizes pleasure. In tombs carved into cliffs near the Etruscan city of Tarquinia, the walls were often covered with paintings. One example is Banqueters and Musicians (Fig. 8.9), C. 480-470 BCE, from the Tomb of the Leopards, so named for the leopards painted on the wall near the ceiling. To the left, banqueters recline on couches while servants bring them food and drink. The women are shown with light skin and the men with dark, according to conventions of representation at that time. One man holds an egg, a symbol of rebirth. To the right, musicians dance across the wall. Gestures are lively and animated and are made more visible by the oversized hands. Golds, reds, and greens predominate, and the circle and checkerboard patterns on the ceiling add to the general colorfulness of the scene. -8 Sarcophagus with Reclining Couple, from a cemetery near Cerveteri, Etruria (Italy), c. 520 BCE. Painted terra-cotta, 4572" tall. Museo Nationale di Villa Giulia, Rome. couple enjoys a banquet on their coffin in this freestanding sculpture. Ancient Burials Funerary practices, religion, agriculture, and astronomy were often interrelated among early peoples. Among the oldest tombs are the New Stone Age mounds in western Europe. In Ireland, the New Stone Age tomb of Newgrange (Fig. 8.3 ), from 3200 BCE, is part of a complex of tombs and monolithic rock structures. It contains 220,000 tons of loose stone with a white quartz rock facing on one side. Inside a long passageway leads to a cross- shaped interior chamber with five burials. The passageway has forty-ton stones, some decorated with spirals and geometric patterns, perhaps indicating stars and planets. It is sealed to prevent water seepage. Newgrange is oriented so that for about two weeks around the winter solstice, a burst of brilliant morning sunlight radiates down through the entire passage, illuminating one patterned stone in the burial chamber. Over time, like other mounds, Newgrange eroded and blended into the natural landscape. Newgrange ceased to be used for any ritual activity after the fourth century CE and remained undisturbed until 1699 CE, when it was rediscovered by men quarrying for building stone. Connection Stonehenge (Fig. 7.26 ) is an example of a monolithic rock structure, dating from the same era as Newgrange. The Great Pyramids of Egypt are perhaps the most famous ancient burial sites, and they serve as the focus figures for this section. Like Newgrange, the Great Pyramids are very old, very large, very influential in style, and oriented to the sun. They are the tombs of the pharaohs, the rulers of Egypt who were believed to be the sons of the most powerful of all the gods, Re, the Sun God. The pyramids, standing dramatically on the edge of the Sahara Desert, are artificial mountains on a flat, artificial plane. They are part of a necropolis, composed of tombs and mortuary temples, that extends for fifty miles on the west bank of the Nile. The pyramids of pharaohs Menkaure (built c. 2525-2475 BCE), Khafre (built c. 2575– 2525 BCE), and Khufu (built c. 2600-2550 BCE), shown in Fig. 8.4, are the largest among all the pyramids. The numbers associated with the very largest, the pyramid of Khufu, are often recited but still inspire awe: 775 feet along one side of the base; 450 feet high; 2.3 million stone blocks; average weight of each block, 2.5 tons. Neolithic, County Meath, Ireland, 3200 BCE. und is oriented so that, during the winter solstice, sunlight radiates through a passage that illuminates a patterned stone. Next >
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