This artistic motif was particularly popular among Dutch Golden Age artists of the 16th and 17th centuries. The three essentials of existence: life, death, and time.Īnother sub-genre of memento mori art is called vanitas. Still Life with a Skull by Philippe de Champaigne, 1671. Not only would these paintings of skulls and skeletons look badass hanging in your home, they can also help remind you that you’re dying daily, encourage you to quit wasting your life away on stupid stuff, and motivate you to start living the life you want NOW. Devout Christians would often ask that their tomb or grave marker have some sort of skeleton motif on it to remind their visiting family members to get right with God before they too bit the dust.īelow, I’ve put together a collection of famous memento mori artwork. Churches would display memento mori art to compel viewers to meditate on death, reflect on their lives, and re-dedicate themselves to preparing to meet God.
To help men remember death, artists created paintings, sculptures, and mosaics depicting skulls, skeletons, and other symbols of death. Our culture is devoted to perpetuating the lie that you can stay young forever and your life will go on and on.īut for men living in antiquity all the way up until the beginning of the 20th century, rather than being a downer, death was seen as a motivator to live a good, meaningful, and virtuous life. It’s a bit too depressing and morbid for our think-positive sensibilities. Us moderns don’t like to think too much about death. As the general basked in the glory of the cheering crowds, the servant would whisper in the general’s ear: “ Respice post te! Hominem te esse memento! Memento mori!” = “Look behind you! Remember that you are but a man! Remember that you will die!” Memento mori is Latin for “Remember death.” The phrase is believed to originate from an ancient Roman tradition in which a servant would be tasked with standing behind a victorious general as he paraded though town. With all the ghosts and goblins decorating homes these days, I figured it’s a great time to talk about one of my favorite genres of art: memento mori. Let that determine what you do and say and think.In case you’ve forgotten, Halloween is this Wednesday. It means ‘Memento Mori’ – remember you must die. In the inside of your hands you will see the letters M.M. Never forget that you must die that death will come sooner than you expect… God has written the letters of death upon your hands. … The one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never short of time.” Seneca “Let us prepare our minds as if we’d come to the very end of life.
Perhaps you have half a century before your die-what makes this any different from a half-hour ?“ Leo Tolstoy
If a person knows that he will die in a half-hour, he certainly will not bother doing trivial, stupid, or, especially, bad things during this half-hour. If we kept in mind that we will soon inevitably die, our lives would be completely different. “Memento mori-remember death! These are important words. Knowing and realizing that you’ll eventually have to die will help you make wise decisions and not worry about all these little things happening in life. Some of the greatest people that have ever lived have used this concept to leave this world in a better place than they were introduced before. Memento Mori is a Latin phrase for “remember you’ll die.” This is a powerful concept one can use in their everyday life to live their life to the fullest.
0 kommentar(er)
