Queen Victoria's funeral procession at Hyde Park Corner 1901 bromide print National Portrait Gallery, London |
Queen Victoria's funeral procession with royal mourners on horseback 1901 bromide print National Portrait Gallery, London |
Queen Victoria's funeral procession entering Paddington Station 1901 bromide print National Portrait Gallery, London |
Death
The other shape
If shape it might be called that shape had none
Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb,
Or substance might be called that shadow seemed,
For each seemed either; black it stood as Night,
Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as Hell,
And shook a dreadful Dart; what seemed his head
The likeness of a Kingly Crown had on.
– Paradise Lost, Book II (1667)
Dirck van Delen Family posing at the tomb of William the Silent in the Neuwe Kirk, Delft 1645 oil on panel Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Miguel Jacinto Meléndez Burial of the Count of Orgaz 1734 oil on canvas Prado, Madrid |
Death-mask of the painter Sir Thomas Lawrence 1830 plaster cast National Portrait Gallery, London |
Jacques Louis David Study for the Death of Socrates 1780s drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Jacques Louis David The Death of Socrates 1787 oil on canvas Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Marcantonio Raimondi after Michelangelo Death and the Maiden 16th century engraving Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
The all of thine that cannot die
Through dark and dread Eternity
Returns again to me,
And more thy buried love endears
Than aught except its living years.
– George Gordon, Lord Byron (1812)
Anonymous Bolognese artist Dead Christ 16th century drawing British Museum |
Anonymous Italian artist Fallen Soldier 17th century drawing British Museum |
Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre Death of Harmonia ca. 1740-41 oil on canvas Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Giuseppe Cades Death of Leonardo da Vinci in the arms of King Francis I 1783 chalk drawing with pastel Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |
Gilbert Francart Allegory of Death 17th century drawing Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |
For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed on the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!
– The Destruction of Sennacherib (Byron, 1815)
Egypt False Door in the West Wall of the Tomb Chapel of Raemkai ca. 2400 BC (excavated 1907-08) limestone Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |