Contemplating Death from Ancient Rome to the Present: Momento Mori and Vanitas in Art

Last week, the "Cheery Skeleton" excavated in the ancient city of Antioch, Hatay in modern-day Turkey, was one of the main topics on social media.  Originally it was reported that the ancient Greek inscription next to Şener (meaning merry, happy man, as he has been very aptly named) translated as "Be Cheerful, Live Your Life" (link). This was disputed by a journalist who claimed it was actually a warning about the effects of consuming too much food and wine (link). Whatever the inscription, it captured our 21st century imagination due to the meaning we associated with it. It was almost as if Şener's reclining figure next to a jug of wine and a loaf of bread was bringing a message of 'carpe-diem' to us from centuries ago. Just the type of message we needed to hear as everything around us was coming crumbling down.

Actually Şener is not the only skeleton from antiquity with a message.  There is a comprehensive post on the history blog about the "Cheery Skeleton" which includes more images of skeletons from antiquity. Of the numerous Roman mosaics excavated with skulls or skeletons, one of the most striking example has to be the mosaic from the triclinium of a House in Pompeii. In this mosaic a large skull at the center is balancing wealth and power, represented with the purple and the sceptre on the one side and poverty represented by the stick and the sac on the other. The idea of death as the great equalizer seems to give comfort for those of us dissatisfied with our present world.

All of these messages of carpe diem seem so relevant today as we deal with wars that leave people without home or country, hatred and racism against those who come from different cultures and religions and income inequality and social polarization. Just thinking about what is happening to the people of Syria, not to say anything of the so-called peaceful democracies in my two countries, Turkey and the United States, makes me ponder maybe we should take Horace's advise to heart as he writes in Odes 1.11 ...

Ask not - we cannot know - what end the gods have set
For you, for me; nor attempt the Babylonian reckonings Leuconoë.
How much better to endure whatever comes,
Whether Jupiter grants us additional winters or whether this is our last,
Which now wears out the Tuscan Sea upon the barrier of the cliffs!
Be wise, strain the wine; and since life is brief, prune back far-reaching hopes!
Even while we speak, envious time has passed;
Pluck the day, putting as little trust as possible in tomorrow! 

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John William Waterhouse, Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May,1909 (Private Collection)

Although carpe diem has become synonymous with a lighthearted approach to life, seizing the moment without a care for tomorrow, Horace's tone is actually more cautionary about the transient nature of time. There is also the simple and direct message of 17th century English poet, Robert Herrick's opening lines from To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time ...

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying.

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Pieter Claesz, Still Life with a Skull and a Writing Quill, 1623 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

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Jacques de Gheyn II, Vanitas Still Life, 1603 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

There is another term that is used in reference to these types of paintings, vanitas. While memento mori paintings reminded the viewer of the shortness of life, vanitas paintings including musical instruments, books and sumptuous objects focused on the futility of earthly delights.  Vanitas Still Life by De Gheyn, a Netherlandish draftsman, is considered to be the earliest example of a vanitas painting. The symbols in this painting are explained in the Metropolitan Museum of Art website as:

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Edward Collier, Still Life with a Volume of Wither's 'Emblemes', 1696 (Tate Britain)

Although the underlying message is dark, vanitas painting allowed artists to display their mastery in representations of different surfaces, materials and textures. The description for Still Life with a Volume of Wither's 'Emblemes'at the Tate website provides more details about vanitas paintings:

In this still-life painting the musical instruments, wine and jewels represent the fleeting pleasures of life, while the skull and hour-glass symbolize the inevitability of death. The open book shows a brief poem emphasizing the theme of mortality. The Latin inscription in the top left corner comes from the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes: 'Vanity of vanities, all is vanity'. This is why such pictures are known as vanities paintings.2 

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Willem Kalf, Still Life with a Porcelain Bowl and Nautilus Cup, 1660 (Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid)

Still Life with a Porcelain Bowl and Nautilus Cup  has many of the symbols that can be found in other Baroque vanitas paintings such as the peeled lemon as well as the watch alluding to the passage of time. The half-eaten fruit is supposed to refer to the transient nature of life. While there are religious connotations associated with Protestant principles, that the affluent Dutch merchant class felt a need to remind themselves, to these paintings, there is also a contradiction since the paintings themselves became the very things the viewer was being cautioned about - beautiful, expensive earthly possessions displaying their owners affluence and learning.

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Juan de Valdes Leal, Allegory of Vanity,1660 (Wadsworth Atheneum)

It wasn't only the Protestants who moralized about the transience of life or the futility of pursuing earthly pleasures, in their vanitas paintings, Juan de Valdes Leal, the co-founder of the Seville Academy of Art was probably one of the most dramatic practitioners of the genre.  In the Wadsworth canvas Valdes Leal actually paints the Allegory of Vanity, that not only includes the trappings from material possessions to fame and power but also intellectual and artistic pursuits. The painting of the Last Judgement revealed behind the curtain is the final reminder of the end of the world and fate of all humankind. 

If the Northern European artists utilized beautiful flowers and luxurious objects to convey the message that life on earth was merely a preparation for the afterlife, the Spanish Baroque artists painted bodegónes with raw vegetables and dead animals displayed austerely in front of a stark, dark background.