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Memento mori

This article is about the concept. For other uses, see Memento mori (disambiguation).
The outer panels of Rogier van der Weyden's Braque Triptych (c. 1452) show the skull of the patron displayed on the inner panels. The bones rest on a brick, a symbol of his former industry and achievement.[1]
Memento mori. Gravestone inscription (1746). Edinburgh. St. Cuthbert's Churchyard.

Memento mori (Latin for "remember (that you have) to die")[2] is an artistic or symbolic trope acting as a reminder of the inevitability of death.[2] The concept has its roots in the philosophers of classical antiquity and Christianity, and appeared in funerary art and architecture from the medieval period onwards.

The most common motif is a skull, often accompanied by bones. Often this alone is enough to evoke the trope, but other motifs include a coffin, hourglass, or wilting flowers to signify the impermanence of life. Often these would accompany a different central subject within a wider work, such as portraiture, however the concept includes standalone genres such as the vanitas and Danse Macabre in visual art and cadaver monuments in sculpture.

  1. ^ Campbell, Lorne. Van der Weyden. London: Chaucer Press, 2004. 89. ISBN 1904449247
  2. ^ a b Literally 'remember (that you have) to die', Oxford English Dictionary, Third Edition, June 2001.

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