How Art Made the World: To Death and Back

SYNOPSIS

Like death is a major theme in stories, images of the death are of all time. Even the 9,000 year old site at Jericho contains nine artistically decorated human skulls, like many other cultures still produce, even today in tribal New Guinea. While some are meant to reconcile the audience with mortality by showing the afterlife, in other cultures human sacrifices and cruel warfare give rise to morbid images, specifically designed to frighten. Starting with the Etruscans, a same work of art may refer both to afterlife and death.