Visual Analysis of the Artifact "Funerary Amphora with Scenes of Mourning"

ROM Visual Analysis
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ROM Visual Analysis
Introduction
The artifact that will be used in my essay is "Funerary Amphora with Scenes of Mourning," which has been displayed at the Royal Ontario Museum's online collection of antiquities. The artifact was made in Greece and is dated about 710-700 BC. This is the Greek Late Geometric IIb period, and it will be instrumental in highlighting the way of life and the belief system of Greece during this period. The visual analysis essay will also address how the Meaning has been communicated through the object, its context, and its relationship to viewers. Finally, the essay will be instrumental in analyzing the social and cultural significance of the art and why the Greeks used them in their funerals.
"Funerary Amphora with Scenes of Mourning," like another vase from 700 BC, was used to communicate how society felt and their belief system.
ROM Visual
Analysis of Physical Elements
The "Funerary Amphora," which is depicted in this essay, illustrates the belief of the Greeks after a person died. To begin with, the Amphora vase was common between 700 and 900 BC. The Greeks used the vases for various purposes, such as holding water, wine, or milk. It was made of clay which was burned to make it strong. However, the Amphora, unlike other vases, was explicitly meant to be used when a person dies. According to the Greeks, a person's life does not end once they are dead. People usually go to the underworld. For this reason, the Greeks buried their people with some of their belongings. There was a belief that the belongings would be helpful to the person whenever they are going. The vase of Amphora was, therefore, a tool that would be helpful to those that attended a funeral and also to the deceased.
The vase has two handles and was taken to the funeral for offerings or for putting in human remains. The figures in this vase have been reduced o geometric shapes, as was common in most of Greek art. The paintings in the vase are those of a funeral procession with women dancing as they escort the body to the grave. The procession was an essential part of the Greece funeral arrangement, and the women were at the center of the preparations. The identical vases but of bigger sizes were sometimes used to mark the graves. The painting on the vase illustrates what was expected from the people who were escorting the body to its final resting place. The vase was also a decoration for the burial place, depending on a person's social status.
Symbolism
The Greek society was made up of a hierarchy of who belonged where depending on where one was born and their material possessions. The vase was thus a representation of the kind of life that one lived. It was proper for the family to make sure that the dead were honored in a manner that represented the way they lived. The more a vase was decorated, the high the chances that that person was an elite. The symbolism of the vase was that although a person was dead, they were still living a good life in the afterlife. The Meaning of these vases was to encourage society to move on and keep living, knowing the dead person was in the other life having a good life.
There was much hope when a person died because, unlike in the 21st century, the material wealth of a person had a significant impact on the kind of life they are going to live after they die. The wealthy Greeks, for example, had their vases decorated in rich colors. There were also times when people had chariots painted on their vases as a sign of their status when they were living. If a person were a male, their family members would paint pictures that showed their military prowess (Royal Ontario Museum, 2022). The atrocity and the nobility had different pictures than the peasants. The social gap was still prevalent in Greece, and people were earnest about such issues. If the living did not give the dead a proper burial, he could haunt them. It was also shameful not to provide the deceased a proper burial.
How Meaning is communicated
The Greeks also used Funerary Amphora vase has also been used by the Greeks to showcase the way that the funeral procession was being arranged and how people had different roles to play in the community. The Greeks did not believe that the body should be left in the tomb after it had been buried. It was important to keep visiting the graves regularly to make sure that they were taken care of by the people who were living. As such, the vase has been instrumental in communicating how the people prepared for the burial of a person. As indicated in the vase, the first step of burial was the laying down of the body. The body was often taken home where the person lived to be prepared for burial. The women played a major role in the way that the body was prepared.
The women were tasked with washing and preparing the body for burial. This kind of relationship between the body and the corpse can be seen in the way that the women have been displayed in the vase. The body was washed with oil and arranged on a bed. The body was then covered in a blanket, and the head was placed on a pillow to indicate that the person was only sleeping. The relatives and friends would then be given some time to mourn the dead through vigil and other rituals. The rising of hands by both men and women was an indication of lamentation. The women would then decorate the vase, where it would be taken to the gravesite to respect and honor the dead.
Additionally, the vase has been instrumental in highlighting the 2nd phase of the funeral or "euphoria." The vase has articulated how the people lived in the Greek period through its painting on the vases placed on the gravesite (Cerqueira, 2014) . Unlike the 21st century, where minimal rituals are being performed, the people in the Greek period were very meticulous about what they were doing and the things that were supposed to be done by different people in the community. The 2nd phase after a person was pronounced dead was to Prepare for their procession to the place that they wer...