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Attitudes, Practices, Rituals and Funerary Arts Across Disciplines and Cultures
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Attitudes, Practices, Rituals and Funerary Arts Across Disciplines and Cultures

A special issue of Arts (ISSN 2076-0752).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 March 2026) | Viewed by 3539

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Debra Andrist

E-Mail
Guest Editor
Independent Researcher, Huntsville, TX, USA
Interests: gender; medicine; culture; art; literature

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The basic premise of this issue is that the study of death-related individual and social attitudes, practices, rituals, and arts, as well as representations of the same across disciplines, reflects human cultures, which may be compared and contrasted for insights into those cultures. Including examination of both individual actions and interactions among individuals in various cultures provides cultural comprehension by those both part of the culture(s) and by those from different cultures. While academic works focusing on death are certainly not uncommon, the breadth of world cultures across time and their social and artistic productions included in this issue will be wide; thus, the issue has potential appeal for scholars and lay people across disciplines: visual art, sciences, literature, social sciences, languages, history, and gender (especially women’s) studies, as well as area studies. This wide interdisciplinarity, yet focused on various cultures, is still unique enough to be original, as many already-published works lack the breath, interdisciplinarity, yet focus.

Prof. Dr. Debra Andrist
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Arts is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • death
  • mortality
  • funerary
  • ritual
  • burial
  • mourning
  • afterlife

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 326 KB  
Article
Pablo Picasso and the Threat of Death in the Early 1940s
by Enrique Mallen
Arts 2026, 15(3), 42; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15030042 - 25 Feb 2026
Viewed by 796
Abstract
During the German Occupation, Picasso reacted to the omnipresent threat of death and violence with defiant stoicism, artistic subversion, and a profound memorialization of its victims. Though his work was banned as “degenerate” by the Nazis, he remained in Paris, and chose to [...] Read more.
During the German Occupation, Picasso reacted to the omnipresent threat of death and violence with defiant stoicism, artistic subversion, and a profound memorialization of its victims. Though his work was banned as “degenerate” by the Nazis, he remained in Paris, and chose to fight with his art rather than flee. Picasso was also personally affected by death during this time as he lost several close friends. Among them were the poet Max Jacob, who died in the Drancy concentration camp in 1944. He knew that his art was impacted by the horror around him, even if he did not paint the war directly. That same year, he declared, “I did not paint the war… but there is no doubt that the war is there in the pictures which I painted then.” The artist stripped away any hint of beauty in his wartime portraits and still lifes in favor of brutal, angular compositions. In all the jarring pictures he painted during this period, death is portrayed as a violent threat rather than a peaceful end to life. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Attitudes, Practices, Rituals and Funerary Arts Across Disciplines and Cultures)
30 pages, 6487 KB  
Article
The Gold Necklace of Li Jingxun: Ritual Materiality and Trans-Asian Symbolic Authority
by Yanyan Zheng, Ziyi Wang and Xi Zheng
Arts 2026, 15(1), 2; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15010002 - 26 Dec 2025
Viewed by 2149
Abstract
This article reexamines the gold necklace excavated from the Sui-dynasty tomb of Li Jingxun (李静训, 600–608 CE), shifting attention from stylistic attribution to ritual function and funerary context. While previous studies have emphasized Persian, Byzantine, or Indian influences, this study situates the necklace [...] Read more.
This article reexamines the gold necklace excavated from the Sui-dynasty tomb of Li Jingxun (李静训, 600–608 CE), shifting attention from stylistic attribution to ritual function and funerary context. While previous studies have emphasized Persian, Byzantine, or Indian influences, this study situates the necklace more plausibly within the Iranian–steppe cultural sphere and the Turkic–Sogdian exchange networks active along the Silk Roads in the late sixth and early seventh centuries. Through analysis of its segmented structure, polyhedral gold beads, pearl rondelle, nicolo intaglio clasp, and gemstone arrangement, the article identifies close technical and visual parallels in Central Asia and the wider Iranian world. The necklace is interpreted as an apotropaic object likely worn in life and placed in the tomb to extend its protective and guiding functions after death. Attention to bodily use, clasp orientation, and associated grave goods—especially a stemmed cup with Eurasian ritual associations—clarifies how the necklace operated within a Buddhist burial setting timed to Lichun 立春 (Beginning of Spring). Situating the object within the Li family’s Xianbei 鲜卑 background and documented connections with Sogdian communities, this study demonstrates how foreign ornaments were actively understood and integrated into Sui aristocratic funerary practice, rather than adopted as passive luxuries. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Attitudes, Practices, Rituals and Funerary Arts Across Disciplines and Cultures)
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