Memento Mori Art – Symbolic Meditations on Death
Memento mori is Latin for “remember that you must die.” In art, the phrase describes reminders of mortality rather than one unified movement: a skull, hourglass, fading flower, extinguished candle, or an entire image can prompt viewers to consider time, death, conduct, and what—if anything—endures. Its visual traditions extend from medieval tombs and dances of death to Dutch vanitas still lifes and modern art.
Memento Mori Philosophy and History
Meditation on mortality long predates the Latin formula. Plato’s Phaedo connects the philosopher’s practice with preparation for death, while Stoic writers repeatedly treat death as natural and beyond human control. These classical ideas are useful background, but the familiar phrase and its later imagery took shape through different religious, literary, and artistic settings; they should not be collapsed into one continuous doctrine.
Memento Mori Art in Medieval and Early Modern Europe
Christian Europe gave reminders of death a strong ethical and devotional role. Images could ask viewers to prepare the soul, reject pride, pray for the dead, or contemplate judgment and salvation. Classical and Christian responses were never as simple as “enjoy life” versus “fear sin”: both traditions contained multiple, sometimes competing ways to understand mortality.
A memento mori does not have one fixed meaning. Its force depends on the object, inscription, setting, patron, and beliefs of its audience.
The most evident places to look for memento mori symbols are in architecture and funeral art. Cadaver tombs were a 15th-century practice among the wealthy, where the tomb of the deceased would have the effigy of a decaying corpse displayed on it. Later Protestant tombstones in the United States would often depict skeletons and skulls. The Capuchin Crypt in Rome or the Chapel of Bones in Portugal are two examples of “memento mori architecture” that can be found in Europe, the walls of which are covered with human bones and skulls.
Clocks and other timepieces are also common objects from this period that would contain memento mori symbols, as they represent the passing of time in its never-ending and persistent countdown to death. In some of the public clocks in Augsburg in Germany, it is death who rings the hour hand. In the early 17th century, memento mori artists would create jewelry such as pendants, mourning rings, and lockets that portrayed motifs of coffins, skulls, and bones. In Holland, an artistic movement known as Vanitas was popular for its famous paintings of death, which were painted with various symbolic objects combined into a skull still life.
As early examples of memento mori paintings, these works were created with combinations of skulls, dying flowers, butterflies, and hourglasses, together representing the impermanence of human life and the marching on of time.
Memento Mori Art in the Americas
Mortality imagery also appeared in colonial North America. New England portraits and gravestones could combine individual likeness, family memory, and emblems such as skulls or winged death’s heads. Thomas Smith’s self-portrait, for example, places a skull beneath the sitter’s hand; Smith was a merchant and sea captain, and the object is best read as a conventional reminder of death rather than proof that he expected to die as a soldier.
Mexico’s Day of the Dead has a distinct history shaped by Indigenous practices and Catholic observance; it is not merely a European memento mori custom transplanted abroad. Its decorated skulls, memorial offerings, breads, and humorous calaveras literarias honor or address the dead while affirming continuing relationships with them. José Guadalupe Posada’s widely circulated skeleton prints later became closely associated with this visual culture, although many originally served topical satire.
Memento Mori Art and Artists
Memento mori is a theme and interpretive category, not a movement bound to one period. The examples below show how its meanings shift across books, portraits, still lifes, anatomy, and modern painting.
| Motif | Typical association | Interpretive caution |
|---|---|---|
| Skull or bone | Mortality and the body’s fate | May also belong to anatomy, portraiture, satire, or religious devotion |
| Clock or hourglass | Time passing and life’s limits | Context determines whether the message is moral, elegiac, or secular |
| Extinguished candle or lamp | Life abruptly ended | Smoke and reflected light can also display artistic skill |
| Fading flower, fruit, or bubble | Fragility, beauty, and brief duration | Objects do not always carry one fixed code |
| Books, instruments, shells, or luxury goods | Knowledge, pleasure, rarity, wealth, or achievement | They can be celebrated and questioned at the same time |
The Dance of Death (1493) by Michael Wolgemut
Michael Wolgemut was a printmaker and painter born in 1434 in Nuremberg, Germany. He is not only remembered for his artwork but also for the huge contribution that his workshops had in producing and developing artistic talent such as Albrecht Dürer.
Wolgemut was a prominent figure among artists that were then reviving the old tradition of German woodcuts. Wolgemut would design the woodcuts which would then be used to print illustrations for book publishers in Nuremberg, and the best of these were sold as artworks separately. In a personal capacity, he was known for his various commissioned artwork done for places such as the Church of St. Mary in Zwickau, the Church of the Augustinian Friars at Nuremberg, and the town hall of Goslar.
The Dance of Death is a sub-genre of memento mori art. It became popular during the Renaissance but had its origins in the late medieval period.
The image comes from the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle, whose illustrations were produced in the workshop of Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff. It is safer to credit the workshop context than to assume that Wolgemut personally designed or cut every block. The picture shows the dead rising from their graves and dancing: three skeletons join hands, another plays a wind instrument, and a fifth emerges from the earth.
With fatal diseases being a constant threat to the population, the image of death was always in the back of people’s minds, and memento mori artists were able to reflect that grim fascination with death back to the public.
Vanitas Still Life (1625) by Pieter Claesz
Pieter Claesz was a Dutch Golden Age painter born in Berchem around 1597. By 1621, he had settled in Haarlem, where he specialized in breakfast pieces and vanitas still lifes. He became known for restrained tonal harmonies, although this 1625 painting still includes vivid accents.
In this painting, there remain colorful elements from his older style, such as the blue of the silk ribbon or the anemone with its vivid red and white coloring. The anemone had been used because it exists for such a short time, one of several constant reminders in famous paintings of death of the temporary existence of life. Other symbolic reminders of death can be seen in the placement of a skull, a watch, and a melting candle throughout the composition.
Young Man with a Skull (1626) by Frans Hals
Frans Hals was born in Antwerp around 1582–1583 and worked mainly in Haarlem. The Dutch Golden Age painter transformed portraiture through alert poses, animated expressions, and brushwork that appears spontaneous while remaining carefully controlled. He painted individuals as well as civic-guard and charitable-institution groups.
His style became admired and replicated due to its radically free approach to realism. He was able to capture the essence of the character and moment in the expressions and poses of his subjects.
Hals painted Young Man Holding a Skull (Vanitas) around 1626–1628. It was once fancifully described as Hamlet holding Yorick’s skull, but the National Gallery identifies it as a vanitas image within a longer tradition of young men displaying skulls. The sitter’s lively gesture and extravagant costume heighten the contrast between youth and inevitable death.
The idea that the painting portrayed Hamlet was put into question by the fact that many portraits from that period contained skulls and none were a reference to Shakespeare’s work. It was also highly improbable as Shakespeare’s work was not known in the Northern Netherlands in the 1620s.
Still Life, An Allegory of the Vanities of Human Life (1640) by Harmen Steenwijck
Harmen Steenwijck was a Dutch Golden Age painter born in Delft in the Netherlands in 1612. His father sent him and his brother to study under their uncle, David Bailly. It was Bailly who inspired Harmen to start painting art in the Vanitas style. He then became a consistently active artist from 1628 to 1633 in Leiden, after which he returned to Delft in 1633. He is most well-remembered for his painting An Allegory of the Vanities of Human Life, which he painted in 1640. It was essentially a religious sermon in the guise of a still life painting and is a prime example of the Dutch Vanitas painting style.
As with all Vanitas art, the skull still life composition was rich with memento mori symbols, depicting the earthly pitfalls that stand between man and salvation from damnation and the eternity of death.
Therefore, the skull has been positioned as the focal point of the composition, the universal symbol of death. The oil lamp and pocket watch mark the passing of time, marching towards an inevitable outcome, as no lamp can burn forever. The specific shell used in this memento mori painting is a representation of wealth, as it came from a far-off land and was highly polished. Books and musical instruments can also be seen in the composition, representing knowledge as well as luxurious indulgences. Being the most expensive color dye, the purple silk cloth is a symbol of material wealth and luxury.
Self-Portrait With Vanitas Symbols (1651) by David Bailly
David Bailly was a Dutch Golden Age painter born in Leiden in the Dutch Republic in 1584. Bailly was a student of Jacques de Gheyn, a copper engraver, and his father Peter Bailly, a calligrapher. Afterward, he apprenticed with the Dutch portrait painter Cornelius van der Voort. In 1608, while working as a journeyman, he went on his Grand Tour, which was a tradition where upper-class men would travel around Europe. He traveled to Nuremberg, Augsburg, Frankfurt, and Hamburg, and then on to Venice and Rome, working for several princes during his return voyage. In 1613, upon his return to the Netherlands, he began painting portraits and still-life paintings.
He became known for his Vanitas-style paintings, which included memento mori symbols of impermanence such as half-burnt candles, wilting flowers, and skulls.
In Self-Portrait With Vanitas Symbols, the memento mori artist has blurred the lines between the two styles of portraiture and still-life painting. There are several portraits within the portrait, as well as coins, a skull, a timepiece, a rose, an extinguished candle, a sculpture, a pearl necklace, and other symbols of transience, such as the bubbles floating across the canvas.
Another feature that adds a new dimension to the artwork is the fact that the artist had painted himself several decades younger than he was at the time of creating the painting. However, his 67-year-old version can still be seen looking out at the viewer from one of the smaller portraits within the painting.
By changing the references of time, the painting suggests that the young artist awaits his future age in anticipation, a mixture of time frames that are meant to nudge the viewer into contemplating the nature of time and permanence.
Vanitas Still Life (1668) by Maria van Oosterwijck
Maria van Oosterwijck was born on the 20th of August, 1630 in Nootdorp, the Netherlands. At a young age, van Oosterwijck’s father took her to see a still-life painter, the masterful Jan Davidsz de Heem. His work greatly influenced her and she became his student, soon developing her talent as a painter of realistic floral artworks.
For a while, she worked with de Heem, and after he moved to Antwerp she began to focus on her independent paintings. Her work soon became renowned in Holland as well as in Germany, where patrons included Roman Emperor Leopold I, Louis XIV from France, William III from England, and the King of Poland. Despite all her success as a Memento Mori artist, she was never granted access to the painter’s guild, as women were not allowed to attain membership.
Maria van Oosterwijck’s artworks (such as her Vanitas skull still lifes) were deeply symbolic and allegorical, a style that was highly sought after in Europe during this era.
Her use of extremely dark backgrounds and vivid foreground colors led to her being regarded as one of the most eminent painters of the Netherlands and surrounding areas. Her use of light and shadow were used to great effect, employing the technique of chiaroscuro – the dramatic interplay between light and dark. By incorporating allegorical elements, her work reflects themes such as impermanence, the vanity of man, and the moral obligation to meditate on one’s devotion to the Divine. Her paintings make use of objects that impart a sense of the transient nature of time, such as wilting flowers, skulls, and hourglasses.
Unlike many of her contemporaries, her work offered some respite from the gloominess of death by incorporating objects that represented resurrection and rebirth.
Still-Life with a Skull (1671) by Philippe de Champaigne
Philippe de Champaigne was born in Brussels in 1602. He moved to Paris in 1621 and became a prominent figure of the Baroque era in France. He created a huge number of paintings, including portraits and religious works. Philippe de Champaigne was initially influenced by Rubens at the start of his art career, but later, his style became more grim and austere. His work is highly regarded thanks to its stern compositional strength and the vividness of his color palette. He painted portraits of royalty, governmental officials, and high nobility.
When portraying their faces, he sought to capture the characteristic essence of the person instead of transitional expressions.
The skull painting Still-Life with a Skull by de Champaigne is termed a Vanitas – a picture that encouraged one to reflect on the temporary nature of life and the seemingly worthless pursuits therein. It portrays three traditional memento mori symbols of doom and impermanence.
A skull to symbolize the inevitability of death, a tulip to symbolize the briefness of glory, and an hourglass to symbolize the never-ending march of time that waits for no man.
The various objects are positioned evenly spaced on a large stone block. Central to the composition and staring directly at the viewer is a skull, reflecting one’s mortality at the observer. A tulip rests in a small bowl of water to the left. The flower was once a bud, which then bloomed forth for a brief second of magnificence before beginning to wilt away into nothing. The hourglass reminds one that time is limited for each of us, and the sand can be seen counting the passing of time with the drop of each grain.
Tabulae sceleti et musculorum corporis humani (1747) by Bernhard Siegfried Albinus
Bernhard Siegfried Albinus was a German-born Dutch professor and anatomist. He was born on the 24th of February, 1697 in Frankfurt, Germany. After his father moved the family to the Netherlands to take up residence at Leiden University as the chair of medicine, Bernhard began his studies with Boerhaave, considered the father of physiology, at the age of 12. After years of studying anatomy in Paris under various tutors, he returned to Leiden to take up a position at the university as a lecturer of surgery and anatomy.
He is best remembered for his collaboration with engraver Jan Wandelaar on Tabulae sceleti et musculorum corporis humani, published in Leiden in 1747. Their plates combine exacting anatomical demonstration with carefully staged landscapes. A gridded viewing system helped transfer proportions, while Wandelaar’s backgrounds turn scientific specimens into unusually theatrical figures.
Bernhard Siegfried published the beautifully illustrated volume mostly at his own expense, and although many people criticized Wanderlaar’s whimsical treatment of the volume’s scientific subject matter, he was strongly defended by its co-creator.
Head of a Skeleton with a Burning Cigarette (winter 1885–1886) by Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh was born on the 30th March 1853 in Zundert in the Netherlands. He was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who only after his death was recognized as one of the most influential artists in the history of western art. He created more than 2,100 artworks in the last decade of his life, including 860 oil paintings, many of which were said to have been painted in the last two years of his life.
These include still-lifes, self-portraits, and landscape paintings characterized by their dramatic and bold colors and expressive brushstrokes, all of which influenced the art movement for many decades well into the present day.
The Van Gogh Museum dates this small oil painting to the winter of 1885–1886, when van Gogh was studying at the academy in Antwerp. The skeleton belongs to academic anatomy training, while the lit cigarette turns the exercise into a sardonic image. Because the artist left no definitive explanation, claims that it was simply a classroom joke should remain qualified.
Pyramid of Skulls (c. 1901) by Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne was a French Post-Impressionist painter whose art helped mark the transition from 19th to 20th-century concepts and aesthetics. In the last decade of Paul Cézanne’s life, he worked in isolation and often hinted at his feelings towards his mortality in his letters to friends.
He is said to have had a slight fascination with death and mortality since the 1870s, but it would be more than another 20 years before he started to implement the concept of death in art form. Around the time he started adding memento mori symbolism into his art, his health began to rapidly decline. His ongoing preoccupation with the subject of death can be identified in a number of his skull paintings that he produced in 1898 and 1905.
Paul Cézanne’s paintings from this period were produced in watercolor as well as oils and offered a subtler version of the traditional Vanitas theme.
Painted around 1898–1901, Pyramid of Skulls sets three skulls under pale light against a dark background. Mortality is unmistakable, but the concentrated frontal arrangement also let Cézanne study rounded volumes, light, and spatial compression, much as he did with fruit and vessels. The picture should not be reduced to a single coded religious message.
Today, we have learned about the intriguingly dark topic of memento mori. We have discussed how a philosophy on the inevitable nature of death has affected artists throughout the centuries to create works of art that reflect their contemplations on the impermanence of life, the fruitless pursuit of happiness in worldly things, and the abandonment of sin, all in return for the chance of salvation from the pitfalls of human existence.
Take a look at our art memento mori webstory here!
Frequently Asked Questions
Was Memento Mori an Art Movement?
No. Memento mori is a theme, practice, and interpretive category rather than a movement with a founding date or membership. Reminders of mortality appear across periods, religions, media, and artistic styles.
What Does Vanitas Mean?
Vanitas refers especially to images, often seventeenth-century Netherlandish still lifes, that reflect on life’s brevity and the limits of worldly achievement. Skulls, clocks, fading flowers, books, music, and luxury goods can all contribute, but their meanings depend on context. Vanitas overlaps with memento mori without naming every mortality image.
What Are Common Memento Mori Symbols?
Skulls and bones point directly to bodily death; clocks and hourglasses measure limited time; extinguished candles suggest life ended; and bubbles, flowers, or fruit evoke fragile beauty. Books, instruments, coins, and rare shells can question knowledge, pleasure, wealth, or status. These associations guide interpretation, but they are not a universal code.
How Is Memento Mori Different From Day of the Dead Art?
European memento mori usually asks viewers to remember mortality, often through moral or devotional reflection. Mexico’s Day of the Dead developed through distinct Indigenous and Catholic histories and sustains relationships with deceased family and community members through offerings, remembrance, humor, and celebration. Shared skull imagery does not make the traditions interchangeable.
Isabella studied at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in English Literature & Language and Psychology. Throughout her undergraduate years, she took Art History as an additional subject and absolutely loved it. Building on from her art history knowledge that began in high school, art has always been a particular area of fascination for her. From learning about artworks previously unknown to her, or sharpening her existing understanding of specific works, the ability to continue learning within this interesting sphere excites her greatly.
Her focal points of interest in art history encompass profiling specific artists and art movements, as it is these areas where she is able to really dig deep into the rich narrative of the art world. Additionally, she particularly enjoys exploring the different artistic styles of the 20th century, as well as the important impact that female artists have had on the development of art history.
Learn more about Isabella Meyer and the Art in Context Team.
Cite this Article
Isabella, Meyer, “Memento Mori Art – Symbolic Meditations on Death.” Art in Context. August 24, 2021. URL: https://artincontext.org/memento-mori-art/
Meyer, I. (2021, 24 August). Memento Mori Art – Symbolic Meditations on Death. Art in Context. https://artincontext.org/memento-mori-art/
Meyer, Isabella. “Memento Mori Art – Symbolic Meditations on Death.” Art in Context, August 24, 2021. https://artincontext.org/memento-mori-art/.
