Vanitas

Vanitas (Latin vanitas, lit. — “vanity, vanity”) is an allegorical still life, the compositional center of which is traditionally the human skull. Such paintings, an early stage in the development of still life painting, were intended to serve as reminders of the transience of life, the futility of pleasures and the inevitability of death. The term comes from the biblical verse (Eccl. 1:2) “Vanity of vanities, said Ecclesiastes, vanity of vanities, all is vanity!” (Latin: vanitas vanitatum dixit Ecclesiastes vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas).

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