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Realm of Hungry Ghosts (from The Six Realms of Rebirth)
Artist / Origin: School of/Style of Hirotaka, Japan
Region: East Asia
Date: Edo period, 19th century copy of 13th century original
Period: 1800 CE – 1900 CE
Material: Ink and color on paper
Medium: Painting
Dimensions: H: 60 in. (152.6 cm.), 26 3/8 in. (67 cm.)
Location: The British Museum, London, UK
Credit: © The Trustees of the British Museum/Art Resource, NY
Triumph of Death
Artist / Origin: Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Netherlandish, c. 1525–1569)
Region: Europe
Date: ca. 1562
Period: 1400 CE – 1800 CE
Material\: Oil on panel
Medium: Painting
Dimensions: H: 46 in. (117 cm.), W: 63.8 in. (162 cm.)
Location: Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain
Credit: Courtesy of Art Resource/Photo by Erich Lessing
Death is, in some ways, the greatest mystery of life. Almost every culture formulates its own ideas, however amorphous, as to what happens to the individual after death. Often, those ideas are bound up with cultural expectations and behavioral ideals to which the living person is subject. In other words, one’s conduct in life will determine the nature of his or her experiences in death. Both the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts scroll and the Triumph of Death were very much intended as images that would prompt their viewers to consider their values in this world and contemplate what might follow.