Symbolism in Vanitas Paintings
Вставка
- Опубліковано 8 сер 2024
- Amuze Art Lecture #161: An overview of the symbolism in vanitas paintings. These still life paintings are full of symbolic items to remind the viewer of the transience of life.
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Chapters
0:00 Vanitas
1:00 Origin
2:02 Skull
3:28 Candles and Clock
4:58 Shell
5:30 Books
6:10 Other Symbols
7:32 Compositional Tricks
8:33: Conclusion
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Music: Interloper by Kevin MacLeod
Looove this series hehe
I first wanted to do it more generally about the symbolism in still life paintings, but there was already so much to discuss about these vanitas works that I decided to split it into two videos. Next week, probably more generally about still life paintings.
fascinating subject. this will always captivate the human mind as we are mortal beings. the obsession of living forever, life after death and the fragility of life itself is shown all over in art. this genre is pure symbolism to that subject.
Thank you very much for sharing!
Right!
Wow best content in art is about symbology, it help us learn from masters
It is a fascinating subject that helps us to unravel the various meanings of a single artwork.
Thank you for the beautiful explanation!
My pleasure, obrigado!
Thank you!
My pleasure, thanks for watching
Thanks for the interesting video! Are these vanitas paintings relates to the concept of memento mori? If I recall correctly, this theme predates christianity
Yes, vanitas and memento mori are very much related, and the idea behind them is the same. I would say that memento mori is a bit broader term that also applies to other areas than visual art (like literature, music, etc), while vanitas mainly refers to paintings. And some of the ancient Greeks already embraced the memento mori idea.
Years ago I was in a taxi, here in Brazil-SP, I was taking my sister to a doctor (she’s a special needs person).
We were stuck in a traffic jam and there was a enormous graffiti on the side of a building. It caught my sister’s attention and she showed some nervousness since the graffiti had many symbols of memento mori, like skull, hourglass, etc.
The driver also showed some interest and began talking to me. I started to explain that all those objects represented the fragility of life, etc.
At some point he said “My goodness, I did something terrible, I betrayed my wife, and I just learned yesterday that my lover is pregnant. My wife doesn’t deserve it. I had drunk some alcohol and lust took over me.”
I think that that he was really impressed with what I said and that vanitas graffiti. Unfortunately that specific graffiti is no longer there, it was substituted for a meaningless one.
What an intriguing story. 400 years ago, people would really understand these kind of paintings, but today we still have the intuition to understand the main message of these works. Thanks for sharing!