Explore vanitas

Popularized in 17th-century Europe, vanitas—which means “vanity” in Latin—came to define a genre of primarily still-life painting. Highly symbolic subject matter such as wilting flowers, insects, tables strewn with fruit and game, and human skulls nodded to the transience of life. Akin to “memento mori,” which means “remember you will die,” vanitas paintings remind the viewer that one’s earthly pleasures, power, or wealth will all inevitably mean little after death.