Souffleur: what is the meaning of 'Vanitas'?
© M Leuven, bron: www.artinflanders.be, foto Dominique Provost
SOUFFLEUR
VANITAS
Like all domains, art has its own vocabulary. In ‘Souffleur', employees of M explain and give background to professional terms that may sound familiar to you, but of which you may not know, or no longer know, exactly what they mean. Three colleagues give their definition of vanitas, collection presentation and hologram.
© M Leuven, bron: www.artinflanders.be, foto Dominique Provost
Peter Carpreau, head of the Ancient Art Department “Vanitas is a Latin word. It means both ‘vanity’ and ‘transience’. It is especially in this second sense that it has become a motif in Western art. Everything that we people work so hard for – money, prestige, power – is finite, empty, insignificant.
“The symbol of vanitas is the skull. Even if you are the richest, most powerful person in the world: this is all that will be left of you. The vanitas theme occurs in all periods, but it was especially popular in the 16th and 17th centuries. It is depicted in many different ways. With skulls, but also with rotting fruit, or fading smoke, or even musical instruments: once the last note has been sounded, the song is over. For good.”
“A very pessimistic view, you might say, but the artists saw it more as a moral lesson. Do not attach too much importance to earthly vanities, but turn to God. He is eternal and can save you from mortality.
