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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.
Double tomb of Richard I of England (Richard the Lionheart) and Isabella of Angoulême. Fontevraud Abbey , Anjou , France. A tomb effigy ( French : gisant ("lying")) is a sculpted effigy of a deceased person usually shown lying recumbent on a rectangular slab, [ 1 ] presented in full ceremonial dress or wrapped in a shroud , and shown either ...
Tomb effigy in the mausoleum of the Lords of Boussu, Boussu Castle, Belgium Cadaver Tomb of Guillaume de Harsigny.Musée d'art et d'archéologie de Laon, France [1]. A cadaver monument or transi is a type of funerary monument to a deceased person, featuring a sculpted tomb effigy of a skeleton, or of an emaciated or decomposing dead body, with closed eyes.
Less blunt symbols of death frequently allude to the passage of time and the fragility of life, and can be described as memento mori; [5] that is, an artistic or symbolic reminder of the inevitability of death. Clocks, hourglasses, sundials, and other timepieces both call to mind that time is passing. [3]
The hourglass is also an artistic symbol of "memento mori" which translates from Latin to "remember you will die". The plinth is in black, as a sign of mourning for the Pope. [ 2 ] The expansive billowing drapery of dark Sicilian jasper contrasts dramatically with the still white marble figures.
Gravestones may be simple upright slabs with semi-circular, rounded, gabled, pointed-arched, pedimental, square or other shaped tops. During the 18th century, they were often decorated with memento mori (symbolic reminders of death) such as skulls or winged skulls, winged cherub heads, heavenly crowns, or the picks and shovels of the gravedigger.
In the late Middle Ages, influenced by the Black Death and devotional writers, explicit memento mori imagery of death in the forms of skulls or skeletons, or even decomposing corpses overrun with worms in the transi tomb, became common in northern Europe, and may be found in some funerary art, as well as motifs like the Dance of Death and works ...
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.