Octoberfest 2018: Victorian Corpse Photography
Hi and welcome to this year's Octoberfest! If you're new to these parts, Octoberfest is an annual series I put out every October as my month long tribute to all things creepy, gory, scary and morbid leading up to Halloween. The twist on my Octoberfest is that everything discussed is old--per usual, keeping in tune with the vintage/history theme of the blog. It's also my last big hurrah for the year, so I try to go out with a bang. I've always found it ironic that I make a point to do this series every year but in reality, I have no stomach for gore, don't care much for horror films and generally stay away from morbid things....between November and July. LOL Between August and October though, it's on. 😂I usually ease us into the meatier posts and start things out with a fall-themed Insta Inspo, but I'm going to be sprinkling those throughout the month since I haven't done one in awhile. I wanted to start things off with the offbeat and morbid, which brings me to today's post.
Victorian corpse photography, for me, falls in both the 'offbeat' and 'morbid' categories. The art is typically attributed to the Victorian era because the Victorians were able to contribute more to corpse photography than past societies, making it a more common--but untrue--belief that the Victorians are the ones who started the practice. We're going to do some time jumping here and go back to where the origins may be of what we now know as corpse photography. You're going to be here awhile, so get a snack--or maybe not, I don't know where you are on the squeamish spectrum lol--and find somewhere comfy to curl up.
Roman Egypt, 30 BC--3rd century
Corpse photography has much deeper roots than the Victorian era. There are records of the ancient Egyptians creating paintings of their dead from Roman Egypt, which began around 30 BC. The Egyptians had different ways of creating some visual representation of the deceased, from Egyptian burial masks to decorated sarcophagi to custom made coffins. I'm going to get into that later in the month. Another, less talked about, representation was the panel painting. The discovery of the panel painting would prove to be a massive influence on the worlds of art and history, even today, as they laid the groundwork for what many would later credit the Victorians for creating, corpse photography.
So what was a panel painting? A panel painting referred to a portrait created on either a single slab of wood or several small slabs joined together, and later canvas became the material of choice. This was the basis for the Fayum mummy portraits of ancient Egypt, which was given its name due to its frequent usage in the Faiyum Basin city of Hawara. These are not to be confused with mummy cartonnages, but they are distantly connected. After an individual died, one of their relatives commissioned a mummy portrait, which was hung on the outside of the cloth used to wrap the mummy. These paintings were always commissioned post-mortem and were usually limited to the income brackets of the affluent so there are a large amount of mummies who had no portrait. After the body was mummified, the painting would be hung over where the person's face was, giving the person an identity in the afterlife. Later, the Egyptians would use false heads--we'd probably refer to them as skull busts today--to carry on the purpose of the Fayum mummy portraits.
As the oldest painted portraits to be recovered, Fayum mummy portraits did a lot for helping historians unlock many hidden truths of life for people during the Roman Egyptian era. The mix of Greek and Egyptian cultures in society was prominent in the photos through the subject's personal style, jewelry and accessories, providing a firsthand look into what life may have been like in such a blended society. The style of the portrait and the painting itself would later go on to inspire later generations of art and the subjects of the portraits would allow the dead to live on as history lessons indefinitely. The distinctive style of Fayum mummy portraits, from the realistic-looking depictions of the subjects, the exaggerated facial features and similar facial structures across different subjects, is all reflected in later bodies of work, Byzantine and Late Antique being two of those later bodies. It was said that the artwork was supposed to reflect the individual's likeness, or an ideal version of that likeness, with the thought that the person would go into the afterlife with an idealized appearance. Less than 1000 Fayum mummy portraits survived the passing of time and transport to different countries but the excellent condition of the surviving paintings (the climate in Egypt and the materials used in the mummy portraits contributed greatly to their preservation) made it much easier to piece the time period together.
Fayum mummy portraits are as much a look into life as they are into death. The paradox of looking at an ultra-realistic depiction of a subject and being able to imagine their culture, society and liveliness all with the knowledge that the subject is dead is a haunting one. These photos, with their vibrant colors and realism aspects, lack the morbidity present in their most notable descendant, the Victorian memento mori photographs. As with any era in time, changes in the societal attitude toward death were reflected in the customs, traditions and behaviors surrounding the dead and as such, Fayum mummy portraits were eventually phased out around the end of the 3rd century. The Egyptians continued their traditions of providing their dead with identities in the afterlife, but moved away from this method of doing so. Post-mortem portraits would see a resurgence, but not for centuries after.
Resources:
1 | 2 | 3
Polish Commonwealth and Europe, 16th--early 19th century
The newly established Polish nobility between the 16th and 18th centuries directly cited Fayum mummy portraits as inspiration for the creation of coffin portraits. The way the story goes is that Poland, a young nation, wanted to disguise being in its infancy and bolster its reputation so they claimed to have ties to ancient civilizations. In an attempt to further that, ancient traditions from previous civilizations were adapted to Polish society, Fayum mummy portraits being one of those traditions. In Polish Commonwealth days it was turned into the coffin portrait, which became a signature of that time period. At the time of the coffin portrait's inception, Poland was the only European nation to engage in the practice. It became a tradition instituted by both natives and immigrants to the nation and was usually commissioned around the time the individual was given their last Christian rites. During this time, a lot of the religious world was under attack due to the battle between Christianity and Catholicism and this resulted in many things being banned, mourning being one of those things. For the Polish Commonwealth, I didn't see this being as large an issue for them but it was still affecting the world around Poland between the 17th and 18th centuries.
Coffin portraits were typically created with sheet metal rather than the wood used in Egyptian panel paintings. They were still secured in the head area, but were attached on the outside panels of the coffin near the person's head. Another element to the Polish post-mortem portraiture was the coat of arms. This was typically hung on the other side of the coffin, opposite the coffin portrait. The sizes changed over time, becoming larger in size. This time period also saw a difference in quality of paintings due to the difference in income brackets of those commissioning photos. The elaborate, skillful coffin portraits and coats of arms belonged to nobles and other important figures during the time period, while lower-income families were only able to afford a simple coffin portrait. Many portraits were commissioned post-mortem but a good amount were painted while the individual was still alive. The differences in painting styles would change throughout this era as the earlier portraits, like the one above, were more one-dimensional and not as elaborate as the photo below.
Unfortunately, one thing that coffin portraits had in common with the mummy portraits was that many didn't survive the passing of time. The coffin portrait was ignored by the world at-large until sometime during the 20th century but a large quantity of paintings were gone by then. Many were stolen, many were removed from the church walls they were hung in (a person's home church was often the final place for many a coffin portrait) and melted down, and many deteriorated naturally over time. The remaining portraits can be found in Polish churches and international museums, where they followed in the Fayum footsteps of providing historians with clues about the life and culture of the Polish Commonwealth. These were much more styled than the Fayum portraits so there was a lot of attention to being in style for the times for the portrait. The hairstyles, jewelry and fashion helped to properly date the paintings and the differences in the sheet metal used for the portrait were obvious, like in the photo above. These were more decorative, were larger in size and there was no longer a set shape. The original coffin portraits were typically like the photo below.
The coffin portrait evoked the spirit of the Fayum mummy portraits from centuries earlier with its sense of realism and life in the paintings. While the Fayum take on death portraits was meant to borrow from the subject's actual appearance in order to give them an idealized look in the afterlife, the Polish take was realistic with even the flaws on a subject's face. Warts, uneven features, wrinkles, all of these things were captured in the subject's coffin portrait. Another difference between the Polish coffin portrait and the Fayum mummy portrait was that while the Fayum portraits were supposed to represent the subject's appearance in the afterlife, the Polish portraits were meant to represent the deceased sitting alongside the still-living. The realism angle of the portrait was meant to portray the deceased as though they were still alive and even in attendance at their own funerals. The legend part of it goes that the eyes of Commonwealth coffin portraits were painted specifically to make it seem as though the living were being watched from beyond, which became a hallmark of other classic bodies (no pun intended) of artwork. At some point after the Polish Commonwealth instituted coffin portraits as a tradition, it began to spread to other parts of Europe but it was referred to as a mourning portrait.
Mourning portraits, or deathbed portraits, were the rage in other parts of Europe around the same time period. The photo above is a deathbed portrait from the 1680s and it is quite different from its coffin and Fayum mummy portrait predecessors in the sense that it is the first painting to actually show the subject deceased. While the others focused on life in spite of death, mourning and deathbed portraits captured the actual death. In the photo above, the woman had already begun to decompose, shown by the discoloring of her fingers (I assumed it was just shadow play on the artist's part but it was actually discoloration from decomposition). The tone of post-mortem portraiture began to change with these types of photos as well; coffin and mummy portraits were meant as a celebration of life and life after death but these portraits were intended specifically for the families and loved ones who had been left behind.
In the era of the deathbed portrait, a tradition was established that is still in circulation today. The original deathbed portraits were taken both on the individual's deathbed and shortly after their death as they laid in repose. This tradition is still being practiced today, as people take photos of their loved ones and even celebrities as they lay in repose. Another tradition common with deathbed portraits was the dressing of the body for the portrait. The person was dressed in their finest clothing, usually with some sort of headdress, and in the Netherlands, unmarried and children were dressed with wreaths of greenery around their heads, I'm guessing to display their status. This can be seen in the photo of the infant above. Other items became present during the deathbed portrait, such as the background usually being a catafalque rather than a bed or no background at all. The catafalque was the usual support structure for a coffin during this time, which was commonly used during Catholic or Christian funereal services. As with the other types of paintings, the wealthier citizens were the usual commissioners of deathbed portraits, but these were valued even less than the coffin portrait and as such, there are very few of them still around today. The concept of painting a deathbed portrait and post-mortem paintings in general were finally phased out shortly after the beginning of the 19th century. The deathbed portrait and the intention behind the mourning portrait then laid the groundwork for the major subject of today's post.
Resources:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Victorian England, 19th century
And now we finally get to the subject of today's post, the Victorian take on post-mortem portraits. These photos were notably darker, in both literal and figurative terms, mainly because they were the first to feature real-life subjects rather than simple paintings of the deceased. The paintings of yesteryear were completely phased out during this era as daguerreotypes and later speedier, more affordable photography methods allowed post-mortem photos to become available to just about everyone, not only the wealthy. The attitude on death had changed by the time the Victorian era hit its stride, and again, mourning and grieving traditions were created that are still in circulation today. This was a notable change from the Protestant Reformation. In the Victorian era, mourning was commonplace, drawn out and even romanticized. Even though life expectancy had begun to rise, mortality rates in England and the States were still extremely high so losing multiple members of a family to one single illness was not out of the ordinary. Queen Victoria, who is in the photo above, is largely who helped to develop the mourning traditions and behaviors that we still use today after the death of her husband. One of the main traditions she instituted was to wear black to signify grief or mourning, like her family is in the photo and many others will be in the photos to come. Other mourning traditions included wearing a black mourning cuff to signify a loss, going into a mandatory two-year mourning period and holding off on social engagements for the entire duration. It also introduced the Victorian contribution to post-mortem photography, the corpse photo, or memorial portraiture.
In addition to being a traditional mourning rite, memento mori photographs were just that--mementos for the family, as this would be the final time that they would be able to see and touch their loved one. The body was usually removed after the photograph in order to begin funeral preparations, and this photograph represented that last bit of togetherness that the family had. While many photos were of the deceased individual alone, many photos, especially those of children, were taken alongside their parents and in a few cases, their parents and surviving siblings. For some families, it was their first--and last--portrait together. When informing distant family of the event, a copy of the portrait would usually be attached to the correspondence, as the photos held significant sentimental value for the family. They weren't the types of photos one would hang in a church, like the Commonwealth era, nor would they be buried with the deceased like the Fayum portraits. These, like the deathbed photos from the Commonwealth era, were strictly for the family and loved ones of the deceased.
One thing I noticed in Victorian post-mortem photos is that at different points of the time period, the portraits took on two different styles. In one period, the person was laid out in a bed as seen in the photo above, but in another, the person was propped up and even posed as if still alive. I noticed a lot of both types of photos while I was researching this post. The purpose for the latter type of photo was for the individual's essence and personality in life to be captured even in death. You can see that still lingering in places today, where you have the elaborate funeral and the corpse is posed to look like its still alive. It was important for the photographer to arrive in enough time to take the photo (the daguerreotype is by today's standards a very slow exposure camera; the usual exposure time was anywhere between 15 and 30 minutes) before decomposition of the body set in. To combat any natural issues when dealing with a corpse, many morticians did double duty as both mortician and photographer. A signature of some Victorian memento mori photographs was that the body was left in its natural state, other than being dressed for the portrait. This means that if the person died with their mouth open like the photo below, it was captured.
Another thing that the Victorians revolutionized with corpse photography was the purposely posed photo, which I mentioned briefly above. While many photos were simple and styled very little, if at all, others were meant to evoke the person's spirit in their final photo. I have to admit that there's something oddly disturbing about the thought of putting my dead child amongst its living siblings and posing it just so, so that it appears that my child is merely asleep or pretending to look down at a doll or read a book. I think this was as much a coping mechanism for many Victorians, as being able to look back on that final photo and see the person 'engaging' in the things they enjoyed while they were alive may have brought them some comfort during the grieving process. It's still strange.....but I kinda get it.
Another signature of Victorian memento mori photographs is that due to long exposure times, many of the subjects would have a slightly blurred effect. If the subject moved at all during the exposure, it would create that effect and this is evident in many Victorian photos. However, it creates a creepy vibe when you factor in photos with the dead. While the living have blurs over their bodies, the dead do not--because they're obviously not moving lol--and it creates this ironic situation in which the clearest figure is the deceased, while the living look blurry, almost like they were digitally added into the portrait later. They look like spirits but the dead are startlingly clear. It's not quite that dramatic for all of the photos, but you can see it a bit in the photo below. This type of photo was a shift from the first corpse photos, which had always featured the deceased individual by themselves. The Victorians were the ones to change that trend, which would have been impossible without the timely invention (and later affordability) of the daguerreotype. The lowered price point meant that these photos, more in style as the era progressed, were no longer limited to the wealthy and important. This explains the amount of portraits we have access to now; nearly everyone was able to afford them. The showmanship of other corpse photography is missing from a lot of these photos; many seemed to be simple photos of grieving families trying to get in one last moment, again, like the photo below.
The Victorians wouldn't be revered as a classic era of creepy and weird traditions if they didn't contribute something strange to the world of post-mortem photography, which brings me to a common myth about Victorian corpse photography. There were posing stands invented during this time that many people say was specifically for corpse photography. While there were certainly photos of deceased individuals who needed some kind of support for their photo (if the body was posed to be standing or leaning, for example), it was actually created for the living. There were specific tricks when trying to get the dead to assume a lifelike pose, but it wasn't by using stands. The long exposure times meant that the subjects would likely move at some point and the posing stands helped keep them steady. The second would be the creepy eyes you see present in some photos. While the exposure of early photos would cause blue to look white, there are quite a few stories about the different tricks employed to make a subject's eyes appear open when they were not, like propping or painting the eyes open. When I was trying to find photos that corroborated this claim, I did come across quite a few that looked off in the eye area but could not confirm if they were dead or just trying extremely hard not to ruin the exposure of their photo. So this particular claim is debatable.
The concept behind Victorian post-mortem photos was a combination of both society and religion; society--and later the Queen--dictated certain traditions and rites to be performed after the death of a loved one, and since the majority of Victorians were Christians, they believed very much in the concept of 'the good death.' But what was 'the good death?' In short, it was basically to be able to die with no unfinished business and in a state of peace at all levels, in order to prepare for whatever comes after death. Due to either the constant lingering threat of death or the concept being so tragic, the Victorians romanticized the idea of death and jumped headfirst into embracing the traditions. Certain parts of the mourning process have remained, such as a final portrait of the deceased, usually in their coffins, wearing black to the funeral to signify mourning, and generally holding off on moving on from the event so quickly out of respect. Corpse photography in the fashion we've gone over throughout this post has since fallen out of popularity--as with anything, trends change and societal requirements have changed as well, but it's still in existence. It's no longer the norm, no longer something people feel pressured to have, especially in the technology era. So even though the Victorians did not technically invent corpse photography, their contributions changed how we behave and what we do, even today. I don't think we would have the same view on post-mortem photography or the same view on funereal behaviors without the Victorian era playing the part that it did.
Resources:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
And that concludes our first post in this year's Octoberfest! I'm sorry it was so long but the more I learned, the more I wanted to share. I initially intended to include post-mortem photography from modern times at the end to show the evolution of the trend but this post has already run extremely long so I had to cut it out. I tried to save the bulk of the information in the post for the Victorian portion of it so that the title didn't feel misleading. I don't expect you to have read all of that; I'm surprised I wrote all of it LOL but if you actually did read it all, I love you. Anyway, don't forget to check out the research links--those are the real MVPs of my posts--if you want more information on any of the topics I discuss here this month. See you in a couple of days!
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