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Lesson
Lesson 1. Vanitas: a reminder of death
Understand what vanitas and memento mori are, and learn to read the symbols of death and transience in a still life.
A painting as a message
Vanitas and memento mori
The Old Masters often hid a message in their paintings that people of their time understood without words. A whole “vocabulary” grew up around the theme of death and the brevity of life.
Vanitas (Latin for “vanity,” from the phrase vanitas vanitatum, “vanity of vanities”) is a type of still life that reminds us: everything earthly is temporary; wealth and pleasures don't last. A related idea is memento mori (Latin for “remember that you will die”): remember that you are mortal, so think about what is eternal.
These paintings weren't gloomy for the sake of gloom. For a 17th-century viewer, they were a philosophical and religious reminder: don't get attached to things; value what matters.
To convey this idea, artists used a stable set of symbols. They're worth knowing by heart — then you'll “read” such still lifes like a text. We'll go through the main symbols in the next step.
Lesson notes
Vanitas and memento mori
The Old Masters often hid a message in their paintings that people of their time understood without words. A whole “vocabulary” grew up around the theme of death and the brevity of life.
Vanitas (Latin for “vanity,” from the phrase vanitas vanitatum, “vanity of vanities”) is a type of still life that reminds us: everything earthly is temporary; wealth and pleasures don't last. A related idea is memento mori (Latin for “remember that you will die”): remember that you are mortal, so think about what is eternal.
These paintings weren't gloomy for the sake of gloom. For a 17th-century viewer, they were a philosophical and religious reminder: don't get attached to things; value what matters.
To convey this idea, artists used a stable set of symbols. They're worth knowing by heart — then you'll “read” such still lifes like a text. We'll go through the main symbols in the next step.
What means what
Remember the basic vocabulary of vanitas:
— Skull — death itself, the main sign of memento mori.
— Hourglass and clock — time is running out and won't stop.
— Snuffed-out or smoking candle — a life cut short; a moment ago it was still burning.
— Wilting flowers, fallen petals — beauty fades fast.
— Rotting fruit, half-eaten fruit — what was fresh is already spoiling.
— Soap bubbles — life is fragile and bursts in an instant (hence the saying homo bulla, “man is a bubble”).
— Books, sheet music, instruments, coins, jewels — earthly knowledge, art, and wealth, which you can't take with you.
— Overturned glass or empty shell — the pleasures are over; only emptiness remains.
When you see a still life with a skull and a clock, it's almost certainly a vanitas, and it's telling you: remember that everything passes.