Tarot death card
Vanitas paintings take the form of still lifes, consisting of objects that symbolise death and love of human life and earthly pleasures. The symbols used are mirrors, skulls, hourglasses, flowers, amongst others. One of the most famous of the vanitas is Hans Holbein the Younger’s ‘The Ambassadors’.
holbein-ambassadors-1533
The skewed skull in the corner provides a visual puzzle for the viewer. The skull, books and musical instrument serve as a Memento Mori or vanitas. In the ever burgeoning materialistic life we live now, I wonder what Memento Mori we would surround ourselves with now? Perhaps designer clothes, jewelry or labels? A DVD or IPOD perhaps? Are our earthly pleasures any different from the ones displayed in the Ambassadors painting? We are still obsessed with material possessions and showing them off, so perhaps not…..
This entry was posted on January 14, 2009 at 12:10 am and is filed under ART, MY ALTERED ART BOOK PAGES with tags altered book, ambassadors, danse macabre, death, earthly pleasures, flowers, hans holbein, material possessions, memento mori, skewed skull, vanitas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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April 14, 2009 at 12:33 am
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