Momento Mori and Vanitas

We were shown examples of art using skulls, in particular Momento Mori and Vanitas. Momento Mori means remember one day you will die, and Vanitas is an art movement that highlights the objects you can't take with you when you die. Both use skill imagery. Skulls can be a signifier for pirates, poison, death, danger, rebellion, Day of the Dead etc, and are found in many areas of art including popular culture, band art and tattoos.

This image is called Vanitas by Antonio de Pereda y Salgado and features skulls together with all the valuables that the person collected during their lifetime.

The above image by David Bailly (1650) is meant to communicate the stupidity of spending money on consumerist items and hobbies and is a reminder that you cannot take these items with you when you die. Most of this style of painting are dark and sombre and are easy to recognise as Vanitas.

We had to design two images, one reflecting a positive use of skulls, and one a negative.

For the positive I produced a pattern, which unless viewed closeup, is not clear what the imagery is. It could be a flower motif, and works quite well, I think.