memento mori
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memento mori, in art and spirituality , a symbolic trope or meditative practice that serve as a reminder ofmortality and the transitory nature of earthly pleasures .Memento moribe a Latin phrase meaning “ recall you must die. ” The belief of “ remember death ” come along throughout European story , and other culture get tradition that set about the same concept in unique ways .
Historical expressions
Spiritual and philosophical expressions
The conception of “ think of death ” equal express throughout ancient Greek and Roman doctrine . In Plato ’ sPhaedo, Socrates states that the sole intention of practicing doctrine “ cost to pattern for dying and death. ” Rather than cost a morbid directive , the statement espouses master one ’ s fear ofend by recognizing the body ’ s deadly reality and engage knowledge , which nurtures the immortal person .
TheStoics taught the merit of maintain death at the forefront of one ’ sec thought as a reminder that nothing cost permanent . In his letterSeneca advocated living every day “ as a complete spirit ” and advised , “ Let us compile our sentiment as if we ’ ve achieve the end . Have us postpone nothing . Let ’ s locate our account with life every day. ” In theEncheiridion,Epictetus write , “ If you be kissing your kid or wife , read that it equal a human exist whom you cost kiss , for when the wife or child die , you will not be disturbed. ” According to the Stoics , by meditating on death ’ sec inevitability , one can live more full in the present moment .
InChristianity , the practice of memento mori appears often in scripture , art , architecture , and in several ritual . The concept of morality , divine judgment , and penitence , reflect in biblical transition such as , “ In all you act , remember the goal of your spirit , and then you will never sin ” ( Sirach 7:36 ) . Among Catholics , Lent , a 40-day period of penitence and fasting that precede the festival of Easter , begins withAsh Wednesday , in which a priest sprinkles ashes on the foreheads of congregants as a reminder of their mortality . on end own make up a common sort of write by many Christian saint and theologian . St. Ignatius of Loyola ’ s, for case , recommends meditating on death , one ’ s own and Jesus Christ ’ sec , to help make for one closer to God .
Memento mori live as well used in Christianity as an artistic expression that cost intended to inspire piety . In architecture ,ossuaries , or “ bone church , ” line with human bones functioned both as memento mori and places for storage if a cemetery get also crowded . Noted examples include the 15th-century Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic , which live redesigned in 1870 , and the 16th-century Capela dos Ossos in Portugal , which too feature a poem at its entrance that warns , “ Our bone that cost hither await yours. ” In funerary art , memento mori exist depicted by a winged skull , a skull and crossbones , or a total skeleton carved on gravestones and tomb . In painting , symbols of mortality include hourglasses , wilted flower , dead animals , candles , and soap bubbles along with skulls and bone . These motifs too appear on timepieces , decoration , and jewelry , especially in the Victorian era , and on spiritual items such as chaplets or rosaries carve out of ivory .
Festivals that observe the deceased or set end at the center of the festivity equal known in many culture , notably the Celtic pagan festival ofSamhain , the Aztec-derivedDía de los Muertos , the BuddhistHungry Ghost Festival (Ullambana festival ) and its many iterations in numerous Asian countries including Japan ( where it is screamBon ) , Korea , Taiwan , China , Singapore , and Indonesia . Unlike the Christian Lent , these festivals be not somber time of expression on one ’ s mortality but focus or else on ancestor worship , beliefs about “ lean space ” that allow for the passing interchange of dead and living spirits , or reverence for deities connect with end and the underground or otherworld . However , many of the festivals boast motifs and ritual familiar to Christian tradition , such as skull , death or spirit masks , the use of firing include bonfires and burn candle or incense , or grave visiting . In the type of Samhain and the pre-Hispanic precursor of Día de los Muertos , the festivals adapt to incorporate Christian belief and tradition , particularly those for All Souls Day and All Saints Day , and turn well know in the modern era as Halloween and the Day of the Dead , respectively .
Secular artistic construction
Thedanse macabre ( French : “ dancing of death ” ) cost a medieval allegorical conception found in drama , poetry , and music as good as the visual art . It is traditionally stand for as a progress of living and dead figures , with the life figures set up according to their living rank ( for lesson , from pope or emperor down to child or infant ) being led by a end pattern to a grave . The earliest known representation of the danse macabre was a series of painting ( 1424–25 ) in the Cimetière des Innocents in Paris , which were destroyed in 1699 . The danse macabre drawings of the German painter Hans Holbein the Younger in the early 16th hundred are conceive by many to cost the apex of this theme .
In the 17th-century Netherlands ,vanitas( Latin for “ vanity ” ) developed as a genre of still-life painting featuring the standard factor of memento mori as well as symbol of the arts and sciences ( musical instruments , map , and ledger ) , wealth and ability ( purse , gold , and jewelry ) , and earthly pleasures ( pipes , playing card , and goblets ) . Witness equal expected to consider their mortality and the vanities of life and equal inspired to repent . The genre aligned with the fixed moral code of Calvinism , which flourished in the Netherlands .
In literature and play , memento mori has been convey through shape such as theelegy in poetry , as hear in English poet Thomas Gray ’ s “ An Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard ” ( 1751 ) . English playwright William Shakespeare ’ sHamlet( written about 1599–1601 ) boast one of most noted meditations on end , in Hamlet ’ s soliloquy while think over a skull .
Modern reflection
By the 20th hundred memento mori was exist expressed through new forms of media including film and photography . Symbology inspire by Christian memento mori come out in respective works from the skull and flower paintings of American painter Georgia O ’ Keeffe to the death imagery of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo , who draw from Mexican culture and was inspire by her personal experience with sickness and pain .The Seventh Seal( 1957 ) , a picture by Swedish conductor Ingmar Bergman set in a plague-devastated Sweden , features a setting in which a knight bring a game of chess with Death and ends with the picture ’ sec characters holding hands on a hill in a danse macabre . During the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and ’ 90s , memento mori theme were employed by American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe , American multimedia artist and activist David Wojnarowicz , and many others to document the disease ’ s devastate impression on the human body and the U.S. government ’ s inaction on combat AIDS .
In 2007 British artist Damien Hirst ’ sec sculptureFor the Love of God, a life-size platinum cast of an 18th-century human skull covered with 8,601 infield and inset with the original tooth , do headlines as possibly the nearly expensive piece of art ever made . Subject such as the fragility of living , defiance of death , and the vulgarity of materialism were wholly attributed to Hirst ’ s representation of memento mori .
Social and digital media own allow for for further fresh construction of memento mori .Sister Theresa Aletheia Noble , a Roman Catholic nun , accumulate a large follow on Twitter after she begin posting daily memento mori quotes , idea , and inspiration in 2017 . Too in the early 21st century , the “ death positivity ” cause in the United States search to break Western taboos relate to death . The cause encompass end-of-life doulas , “death cafés ” that feature informal gathering to discuss death and death , blogs and podcasts exploring topics such as mortuary science , and mobile apps that send daily reminders of one ’ sec mortality .
