Vanitas

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This article is about the fine art genre. For the pejorative name for the political party, see Veritas (political party)

Vanitas is a term referring to the arts, learning and time. The word is Latin, meaning "vanity." In particular Ecclesiastes 1, 2 from the Bible is often quoted:

• vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas (Vulgate)

translating to:

• Vanity of vanities; all is vanity (KJV)
• Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless. (NIV)

Such paintings are meant as a reminder of the transience of life the futility of pleasure and the certainty of death, encouraging a sombre world view.

It is often depicted in still life symbolic paintings by Northern European painters in Flanders, and the Netherlands. Common vanitas symbols are:

• Skulls: a reminder of the certainty of death
• Rotten Fruit: symbolising decay
• Bubbles: symbolising brevity of life and suddenness of death
• Smoke, Watches or Hourglasses: symbolising the brevity of life
• Musical Instruments: symbolising brevity, and the ephemeral nature of life.

See also

• Memento mori
• Danse Macabre
• Ars moriendi

External links

• [Vanitas Still Life] at the Getty Center
• [Vanitas in contemporary art] An exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
• [Vanitas paintings] in the London National Gallery

 

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