![]() It is due to the fact that it could take up to about 15 minutes to develop an exposure. Not to mention it was expensive, as it was laborious and time-consuming. Photography was still a novel medium and a form of art way back then. A fifth of the children born at that time would not be able to reach five years of age. ![]() The average lifespan during the Victorian era was only about 40 years – if you lived past those years, you would have been lucky. According to author Robert Hirsche in his publication Seizing the Light: a Social History of Photography: “death occurred in the home and was quite an ordinary part of life.” Incurable diseases, poverty, poor sanitation, and miserable housing conditions crippled people way back then. This is not unusual, as death was all around them. ![]() Not surprisingly, people embraced death and the stark reality of it. Yet even in our modern culture and society, death is still considered as a taboo subject – it is discussed only when necessary, and even so, people talk about it in a hushed manner.īut during the 19 th century – especially in the Victorian era – death seemed to be commonplace. Famous people or not, no one is spared from it. In our list above you can see how artists have interpreted human mortality throughout history, and the final entry in our list is an example how the Memento Mori tradition continues to inspire contemporary artists today.ĭeath is a common theme for many artists and something that everyone will one day have to experience, so it makes sense that the concept of morality is a theme that surpasses genre or style and can be discovered almost everywhere in art.Death is an inevitable part of life. Many objects could be used to symbolically mark the passage of time and represent the temporary nature of life.ġ : Still Life with Dead Hare and Birds, Jan Fyt, 1640s The most common objects painted by memento mori artists in Vanitas include skulls, timepieces such as clocks or hourglasses, wilting flowers, or rotting fruit. These still-life paintings are usually composed of objects that are highly charged with symbolism, specifically with regard to death. Vanitas paintings are a specific type of Memento Mori Art representing death and the impermanence of life through still-life paintings. Suddenly, we see “Memento Mori symbols”, “Memento Mori skulls”, “Memento Mori flowers" and candles as common features in this genre, to illustrate and celebrate the passage of time.Ģ: Vanitas still life (1668) by Maria van Oosterwijck Throughout history, artists have explored the subject of memento mori in a variety of ways, establishing a global language of rich visual symbolism. Frans Hals - Young Man with a Skull, c.1626 This thought is a significant feature of ascetic practices, particularly Christianity, because it provides inspiration to turn one's attention away from earthly problems and desires and toward the prospect of the afterlife.ģ. And as it appears, it can actually be a quite beautiful thing.ĥ: Antonio de Pereda - The Gentleman's Dream, 1650sīack in the days, the notion and practice of thinking on the fleeting nature of earthly life was known as "Memento Mori": a Latin word that means "remember that you must die."Ĥ: Vincent van Gogh - Skull with Burning Cigarette, 1885 ![]() Still, how we acknowledge this fact differs from person to person. Death is one of the few things that we as humans can count on in life, and death is a reality that we all face.
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