Art to Help You Meditate on Death and Become a Better Man

Below, I’ve put together a collection of famous memento mori artwork. 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

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To This Favour by William Michael Harnett, 1879

Memento Mori: Art to Help You Meditate on

Death and Become a Better Man

by Brett & Kate McKay on October 29, 2012 · 55 comments

in A Man's Life

In case you’ve

forgotten, Halloween is

this Wednesday 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.

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 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 Remember that you will die.

Us moderns don’t like to think too much about death It’s a bit too depressing and morbid for ourthink-positive sensibilities Our culture is devoted to perpetuating the lie that you can stay youngforever and your life will go on and on

But for men living in antiquity all the way up until the beginning of the 20th century, rather than

Self Portrait by Thomas Smith, 1680

being a downer, death was seen as a motivator to live a good, meaningful, and virtuous life Tohelp men remember death, artists created paintings, sculptures, and mosaics depicting skulls,skeletons, and other symbols of death Churches would display memento mori art to compelviewers to meditate on death, reflect on their lives, and re-dedicate themselves to preparing tomeet God Devout Christians would often ask that their tomb or grave marker have some sort ofskeleton motif on it to remind their visiting family members to get right with God before they toobit the dust

Below, I’ve put together a collection of famous memento mori artwork Not only would thesepaintings of skulls and skeletons look badass hanging in your home, they can also help remind youthat you’re dying daily, encourage you to quit wasting your life away on stupid stuff, and motivateyou to start living the life you want NOW

Danse Macabre, or

Dance of Death

A sub-genre of memento mori

art is Danse Macabre, or Dance

of Death This genre of art has

its origins in late medieval times

but became popular during

the Renaissance Dance of

Death paintings typically

portray a skeleton (signifying

Death or the Grim Reaper)

walking, dancing, or playing

music To convey the

universality of death, people

from all walks of life — kings,

popes, peasants, and children

— are invited by jovial

skeletons to follow them in a

dance to the grave Dance of

Death art (and it also took the

form of plays and poems),

grew out of the grim horrors of

the 14th century: famine, the

Hundred Years War, and,

Memento mori woodcut by Alexander Mair, 1605

Hundred Years War, and,

most of all, the Black Death

The latter starkly

demonstrated the way in

which death united all,

felling the population

without the faintest regard

for age or rank

Some Dance of

Death paintings are rather

morbid, graphic, and

downright creepy Whether

or not it gives you the

heebee jeebees, there’s no

denying its powerful

reminder that we’ll all have

to pay the fiddler once our

mortal hoedown is through

Vanitas Vanitatum

Omnia Vanitas

Another sub-genre of

memento mori art is called

vanitas This artistic motif

was particularly popular

among Dutch Golden Age

artists of the 16th and 17th

centuries The famous

passage from chapter 1

of Ecclesiastes on the

In ictu oculi by Juan de Valdés Leal, 1672

of Ecclesiastes on the

fleeting and

impermanent nature of

our mortal life is cited as

the inspiration for this

3 What profit hath

a man of all his

Saint Jerome by Albrecht Dürer, 1521

and another generation

Morieris by Hans Memling, 1483

and another generation

cometh: but the earth

abideth for ever.

5 The sun also ariseth,

and the sun goeth down,

and hasteth to his place

where he arose.

6 The wind goeth toward

the south, and turneth

about unto the north; it

whirleth about continually,

and the wind returneth

again according to his

circuits.

7 All the rivers run into the

sea; yet the sea is not full;

unto the place from

whence the rivers come,

thither they return again.

8 All things are full of

labour; man cannot utter it:

the eye is not satisfied

with seeing, nor the ear

filled with hearing.

Unnamed illustration by Mary S Gove, 1842

9 The thing that hath been,

it is that which shall be; and

that which is done is that

which shall be done:

and there is no

new thing under the sun.

10 Is there any thing

whereof it may be said,

See, this is new? it hath

been already of old time,

which was before us.

11 There is no

remembrance of

former things; neither shall

there be any remembrance

of things that are to come

with those that shall come

after.

In vanitas art, the certainty of

death and our mortality are still

the main themes, but there’s an

added emphasis on the

fleetingness and insignificance of

earthly glory and pleasures

Common symbols in vanitas art

include the skull (representing the

certainty of death); bubbles

(representing the brevity and

fragility of life and earthly glory);

smoke, hourglasses, and watches

(every minute that passes brings

you closer to death); rotting fruit

and flowers (representing the

fragility and decay of earthly

Memento Mori by Jan Saenredam, late 16th century

fragility and decay of earthly

things); musical instruments

and music sheets

(representing the ephemeral

nature of life); torn or loose

books (representing earthly

knowledge); and dice and

playing cards (representing

the role that chance and

fortune play in life)

The purpose of vanitas art is

moral instruction It’s to

remind the viewer that life is

precious, so they better not

waste it on frivolous and

meaningless things

I know death isn’t the most

pleasant thing to think

about, but today I challenge

you to pick out one of the

memento moris above and

really study it Think about

the symbols and what they

mean As you do so, ask

yourself: Am I dedicating my

life primarily to activities and

things that will simply fade

Portrait of a Man Holding a Skull by Frans Hals, 1615

things that will simply fade

away like smoke and bubbles?

Or I am making the most of my

life by creating a legacy that

will live beyond the grave?

Memento mori, gentlemen

sceleti et musculorum corporis humani by Bernhard Siegf ried Albinus,

1749 Albinus was an anatomist who would of ten depict human

skeletons in traditional memento mori motif s.

3

Losing Dad: How a Man

Responds to the Death

Young Man Holding a Skull by Frans Hals, 1626.

Unnamed illustration by Andreas Vesalius, 1543 Vesalius is considered the f ounder of modern anatomy and published the f irst

comprehensive anatomy book of the modern era: “De humani corporis fabrica.” This illustration is an obvious play on memento mori motif s.

It’s actually kind of meta Death mediating on death.

The Dance of Death by Michael Wolgemut, 1493

Dance of Death by Emmanuel Büchel, 1773

Death as a cutthroat by Alf red Rethel, 1851 Rethel was inspired by an

account of how an outbreak of cholera ravaged a masquerade during the

Carnival of Paris in 1832.

Dance of Death Hans Holbein the Younger, 1523-1526 This woodcut is part

of a series Holbein did on the Dance of Death theme.

Unnamed illustration by unknown author, 1488 This image (and the 3 below) comes f rom a series of late 15th century woodcuts based on the Dance of Death theme The book that contained these woodcut images was entitled

Heidelberger Totentanz Scholars believe it was the f irst collection of art

dedicated solely to the Dance of Death theme.

This appears to be a king accompanied by a trombone-playing skeleton.

Sadly, as people in antiquity knew all too well, even children sometimes can’t

escape the dance with death.

Lif e is of ten a game of chance Fortunes come and f ortunes go But we all

have to cash out and head to the big casino in the sky.

Heidelberger Bilderkatechismus, 1455 This is possibly one of the

earliest depictions of the Dance of Death That king kind of looks happy to be hanging out with Death But I guess if the Grim Reaper

had to come, at least he came playing the drums.

The 13th century legend of the Three Living and the Three Dead was a popular theme of murals and f rescoes In the legend, three gentlemen or kings meet the cadavers of their ancestors, who warn them: “Quod f uimus, estis; quod sumus, vos eritis” (What we were, you are; what we are, you will

be!).

Still Life with a Skull by Philippe de Champaigne, 1671 The three essentials

of existence: lif e, death, and time.

Self-Portrait with Vanitas Symbols by David Bailly, 1651 Notice the bubbles.

Vanitas Still Life by Jacques de Gheyn the Elder, 1603 Notice all the

vanitas symbols: skull, bubble, smoke, and f lower Money seems to

be another symbol in this painting It likely represents the

f oolishness of “laying up your treasures where moth and dust doth

corrupt.”

Vanitas Still Life by Jan Davidsz de Heem, 17th century

Vanitas Still Life by Jan Davidsz de Heem, 17th century.

Vanitas Quiet Life by Pieter Claesz, early 17th century Which vanitas

symbols can you see?

Vanitas Still Life by Simon Renard de Saint-André, middle of the 17th century.

Still Life, An Allegory of the Vanities of Human Life by Harmen Steenwijck,

1640.

Vanitas Still Life by Simon Renard de Saint-André, middle of the 17th century.

Notice the hourglass, pair of dice, and sheet of music.

Memento mori themes were common in mediums beyond paintings as well, such as this 16th/17th century ivory pendant: Monk and Death I like this one, because Kate of ten says to me, “Whoa, you have a skeleton

under there.” Whoa indeed.