Vanth is a chthonic figure in Etruscan mythology shown in a variety of forms of funerary art, such as in tomb paintings and on sarcophagi.
Vanth in a fresco in an Etruscan tomb in Tarquinia
Funerary art is any work of art forming, or placed in, a repository for the remains of the dead. The term encompasses a wide variety of forms, including cenotaphs, tomb-like monuments which do not contain human remains, and communal memorials to the dead, such as war memorials, which may or may not contain remains, and a range of prehistoric megalithic constructs. Funerary art may serve many cultural functions. It can play a role in burial rites, serve as an article for use by the dead in the afterlife, and celebrate the life and accomplishments of the dead, whether as part of kinship-centred practices of ancestor veneration or as a publicly directed dynastic display. It can also function as a reminder of the mortality of humankind, as an expression of cultural values and roles, and help to propitiate the spirits of the dead, maintaining their benevolence and preventing their unwelcome intrusion into the lives of the living.
Tomb of Philippe Pot with life-sized hooded pleurants, c. 1477–80, now in the Louvre, Paris
Korean tomb mound of King Sejong the Great, d. 1450
Türbe of Roxelana (d. 1558), Süleymaniye Mosque, Istanbul
The Poulnabrone dolmen in Ireland covered at least 22 bodies of the Neolithic period