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Death and the Miser belongs to the tradition of memento mori, a term that describes works of art that remind the viewer of the inevitability of death.The painting shows the influence of popular 15th-century handbooks (including text and woodcuts) on the "Art of Dying Well" (Ars moriendi), intended to help Christians choose Christ over earthly and sinful pleasures.
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.
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The old man, sitting on his throne, looking straight at us, might represent a tangent memento mori; highlighting the past glory of the Brouwershuis, its collapse, and eventual desertion. [11] [1] [12] The identity of the sitter is unknown. The old man doesn't appear in de Braekeleer's sketches for the painting. [11]
This memento mori underlines that the painting was intended to serve as a lesson to the viewers. At the simplest level the imagery must have suggested to the 15th-century faithful that, since they all would die, only their faith in the Trinity and Christ's sacrifice would allow them to overcome their transitory existences.
The work is a still life in the genre of vanitas, painted with oils on oak panel, and measuring 39.2 by 50.7 cm (15.4 by 20.0 in). [1] Like most vanitas paintings, it contains deep religious overtones and was created to both remind viewers of their mortality (a memento mori) and to indicate the transient nature of material objects. [3]