Death as a Muse: Examples of How Artists Have Confronted Mortality in History

In honor of Halloween, Time for Art is diving into the history of dark iconography present in visual art.  Very intently artists have included skulls, bones, decaying animals, and death in their visual compositions to begin to tackle some of the great themes of existence in humanity.  These symbols are yielded to tell stories of birth and decay, the beautiful and the grotesque, finite time and mortality, and the deception of vanity.  We rely on artists to weave relationships between these ideas. 

Sixteenth century Dutch painters explored the idea of "Vanitas" (vanity and its limits) and the "Memento Mori" (a gentle reminder that you must die). Though they were some of the first to add nomenclature to the art they were making, they certainly were not the first to work with reminders of death.  Here are some great examples of artists wrestling with the intricacies of mortality:

Carpe Diem skeleton carrying pitchers, from the House of the Faun, Pompeii, 1st c. AD. 

Photo: Mesmerising and Macabre Memento Mori

Hans Holbein, 1526

https://www.messynessychic.com/2021/10/14/a-brief-compendium-of-mesmerising-and-macabre-memento-mori/

 

Pendant with a Memento Mori, second half of the 16th century

https://www.messynessychic.com/2021/10/14/a-brief-compendium-of-mesmerising-and-macabre-memento-mori/

 

Jacopo Ligozzi 1604

https://www.messynessychic.com/2021/10/14/a-brief-compendium-of-mesmerising-and-macabre-memento-mori/

 Caravaggio 1606

https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/chiaroscuro

Philippe de Champaigne 1671

https://www.messynessychic.com/2021/10/14/a-brief-compendium-of-mesmerising-and-macabre-memento-mori/

Charles Wilson Peale 1772

https://www.messynessychic.com/2021/10/14/a-brief-compendium-of-mesmerising-and-macabre-memento-mori/

Vincent Van Gogh 1886

https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/head-of-a-skeleton-with-a-burning-cigarette/hQGZa2I9Xi6lpA?hl=en

Paul Cezanne 1898

https://www.theartblog.org/2017/07/memento-mori-skulls-sothebys-shot-glasses-and-soap/

 Max Beckmann 1945 

https://www.theartblog.org/2017/07/memento-mori-skulls-sothebys-shot-glasses-and-soap/

M.C. Escher 1946

https://www.wikiart.org/en/m-c-escher/eye

Andy Warhol 1976

https://www.theartblog.org/2017/07/memento-mori-skulls-sothebys-shot-glasses-and-soap/

Damien Hirst 2007

https://www.theartblog.org/2017/07/memento-mori-skulls-sothebys-shot-glasses-and-soap/

D*Face 2016

https://streetartnews.net/2016/12/dface-till-death-do-us-part-print-release-16-12-16.html