LATE 19TH CENTURY

Vanitas has been a theme present since medieval funerary art. By the 15th century it could be extremely morbid and explicit, reflecting an increased obsession with death and decay also seen in the Ars moriendi, the Danse Macabre, and the overlapping motif of the Memento mori. Paintings and sculpture, such as this bust, executed in the vanitas style were meant to remind viewers of the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death.