Vanitas

Recently I had been looking at the Vanitas genre of Art.

  

Vanitas is a symbolic type of genre associated widely with Northern

Europe. Vanitas originated from the Latin phrase: 'Vanitatum Omnia

Vanitas.' It is a very moralistic genre and depicts the message that human action is

evanescent compared to the everlasting nature of Faith.

Furthermore, it highlights the brevity of life and that everything living will eventually

die.



[ LETS NOT FORGET... ]

The Religious Connotations

[ Ecclesiastes 1:2 ]

"Vanity of Vanities, says the Preacher; Vanity of Vanities, all is Vanity."

other scriptures can also be referred to:

[Ecclesiastes 12:8]

"Everything is meaningless," says the Teacher, "completely meaningless."

I also did some of my own Research through the Bible since I am a Firm Believer :)

[2 Corinthians 4:18]

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

[ TIM BURTON ]

I also decided to look at some different types of Media associated with this genre.

Tim Burtons work can be associated with the genre Vanitas because of

its very Gothic references and the way the characters in some of his films

have been created all being linked with death of some sort. For example

The 'Corpse Bride'.

I thought I would look a bit more closer to home at the new Trends set

today to try and find a real good example of this type of genre and then it hit me...

[ ED HARDY ]

I think Ed Hardy has been highly inspired by the Vanitas genre, which

includes the Gothic look, words associated with death, skulls, Love, Hate, general

opposite terms. I thought this was quite amazing that the genre Vanitas can be linked to

so many existing things today.

[ BEAUTY AND THE BEAST ]

The rose in the 'Beauty and the Beast' never died

until the glass was removed. This introduced

the idea of eternal and temporary which I

referred to in the scripture 2 Corinthians 4:18.

This was a juxtaposition

considering everything around it was dying.

WORDS OFTEN ASSOCIATED WITH THE GENRE:

EMO, ROCK, VINTAGE, GOTHIC, DARK, LIGHT, SKULLS, TIME, DEATH, ROTTEN FRUIT, BUBBLES, ANCIENT, CANDLES, DEAD FLOWERS, BUTTERFLIES, AGEING, DECAY