Momento Mori

Momento Mori ("remember that you [have to] die") tour of objects, February 26, 2023 Momento Mori Tour notes Memento mori Etymology m?-MEN-toh MOR-ee "remember death" or "remember that you die". History The Stoics of classical antiquity were particularly prominent in their use of this discipline, and Seneca's letters are full of injunctions to meditate on death.[7] The Stoic Epictetus told his students that when kissing their child, brother, or friend, they should remind themselves that they are mortal, curbing their pleasure, as do "those who stand behind men in their triumphs and remind them that they are mortal".[8] The Stoic Marcus Aurelius invited the reader (himself) to "consider how ephemeral and mean all mortal things are" in his Meditations. In the Christian context, the memento mori acquires a moralizing purpose quite opposed to the nunc est bibendum (now is the time to drink) theme of classical antiquity. To the Christian, the prospect of death serves to emphasize the emptiness and fleetingness of earthly pleasures, luxuries, and achievements, and thus also as an invitation to focus one's thoughts on the prospect of the afterlife. A Biblical injunction often associated with the memento mori in this context is In omnibus operibus tuis memorare novissima tua, et in aeternum non peccabis (the Vulgate's Latin rendering of Ecclesiasticus 7:40, "in all thy works be mindful of thy last end and thou wilt never sin.") This finds ritual expression in the rites of Ash Wednesday, when ashes are placed upon the worshipers' heads with the words, "Remember Man that you are dust and unto dust, you shall return. Vanitas etymology The Latin noun vanitas (from the Latin adjective vanus 'empty') means "emptiness", "futility", or "worthlessness", the traditional Christian view being that earthly goods and pursuits are transient and worthless.[2] It alludes to Ecclesiastes 1:2; 12:8, where vanitas translates the Hebrew word hevel, which also includes the concept of transitoriness.[3][4][5] motifs Common vanitas symbols include skulls, which are a reminder of the certainty of death; rotten fruit (decay); bubbles (the brevity of life and suddenness of death); smoke, watches, and hourglasses (the brevity of life); and musical instruments (brevity and the ephemeral nature of life). Fruit, flowers and butterflies can be interpreted in the same way, and a peeled lemon was, like life, attractive to look at but bitter to taste. Art historians debate how much, and how seriously, the vanitas theme is implied in still-life paintings without explicit imagery such as a skull. As in much moralistic genre painting, the enjoyment evoked by the sensuous depiction of the subject is in a certain conflict with the moralistic message. themes “From the Renaissance such motifs gradually became more indirect and, as the still-life genre became popular, found a home there. Paintings executed in the vanitas style were meant to remind viewers of the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death. They also provided a moral justification for painting attractive objects.” Objects Male Power Figure Teke/Central Africa 20th century Wood, clay, fiber, earth, and pigment represent the ability to both ‘contain’ and ‘release’ spiritual forces which can have both positive and negative consequences on the community Acting as intercessors between ancestral spirits and the living, minkishi were intended to benefit the entire community and were not the property of a single individual. The creation of a nkishi was a public event (Petridis 2009: 85) that brought together the community, a skilled carver and experienced nganga. Chiefs and elders commissioned the nkishi and the community was responsible for cutting the tree selected for the carving. Both the carver and the nganga had to be well established in their respective professions. The latter decided on the nkishi’s features and type of wood to be used, often selected for its curative or toxic properties or for being associated with certain ancestral contexts (Hersak 2010:44). Once the wooden form was carved following standardized protocols, the nganga assembled the bishimba, powerful matter made of animal, plant, and mineral substances. The addition of this sacred matter allowed the nkishi to become a conduit for spiritual forces. According to anthropologist and Songye art specialist Dunja Hersak, and based on her 1970s fieldwork in the region, the nganga was responsible for “bring[ing] the spirit forces into play with the physical world” Amelia Earhart at Prospertown, New Jersey, in test safety chute flight June 2, 1935 Gelatin silver print Returning Kathy M Liao (Taiwanese American, born 1984) Huan Yin, a Veiled Welcome 2022 Charcoal, collage, gesso on canvas, graphite and monotype on 8 BFK papers Funerary Couch Chinese, Northern Qi Dynasty 550-577 AD Engraved stone These couches were created to support the remains of the deceased, and show a strong resemblance to Chinese domestic furniture, particularly to the formal sitting couch (chuang or kang) and the canopied bed (chazuchuang). During the fifth through seventh centuries burial practices in north and northwest China included the use of such couches as part of tomb furnishings. Tombs were often multichambered, recreating living quarters, and the funerary couch was placed in the back burial chamber, corresponding to the bedroom of the deceased. The sixth century in China is part of an historically and artistically complex period. Unstable and not well documented, it falls between China's two great dynasties, the earlier Han (208 B.C.-A.D. 220) and the later Tang (A.D. 618-906). During the fourth through sixth centuries, north China was completely overrun by seminomadic peoples whom the Chinese called "barbarians." Successive waves included Turk tribes, Tibetan groups, and the Xianbei, a proto-Mongolian people. By the late fifth century, a part of the Xianbei people, the Tuoba, provided more stability by controlling significant parts of northern China. Ritual Tripod Libation Ewer Chinese ca. 1900-1700 BC Buff terracotta, coil and paddle construction a vase-shaped pitcher, is called a guang ("gwang") in Chinese. Chinese ancestor veneration, also called Chinese ancestor worship …Ancestors, their ghosts, or spirits, and gods are considered part of "this world". They are neither supernatural (in the sense of being outside nature) nor transcendent in the sense of being beyond nature. The ancestors are humans who have become godly beings, beings who keep their individual identities. For this reason, Chinese religion is founded on veneration of ancestors. Ancestors are believed to be a means of connection to the supreme power of Tian as they are considered embodiments or reproducers of the creative order of Heaven. Standing Figure of a Groom Chinese, Tang Dynasty Early to mid-8th century AD Earthenware with lead-fluxed glaze earthenware was a more practical material for tomb artefacts because it was more affordable than bronze, and more durable than wood. The Sancai technique literally means ‘three colours’. However, the colours of the glazes were not limited to three in number. This technique is especially associated with the Tang Dynasty. The Sancai glaze is highly durable – most ceramics glazed with this technique has endured till today.[3] The use of Sancai glazing on figures was expensive and required skilful craftsmanship.[3] Sumptuary laws also restricted the usage of Sancai glaze to the upper classes, and production was controlled by the imperial bureaucracy. This great emphasis on the performativity of tomb figurines could be related to the competitive Tang culture of publicly displaying one's wealth and power.[30] The social classes of Tang society were mobile. This means that people in the different social classes could improve its status through hard work and move to an upper class.[32] This created a competitive society, where people often showed off their wealth and power. Members of prominent families or high-ranking officials often paraded through streets in the public, with troops of servants mounted on beautiful horses.[31] This culture of public display takes place even during funerals. After the funerary ceremonies at home are complete, there would be a funeral procession to transport the deceased from home to gravesite.[30][33] The funeral procession is a highly elaborate, visible and competitive public spectacle, designed to impress the public with altars, canopies, flowers, paper figurines, burnt offerings and most importantly, with the display of impressive tomb figurines.[31] The competitive nature of funeral processions got so out of hand, that the emperor had to issue imperial edicts to regulate the quantity and size of tomb figurines, according to the deceased's social status.[2] Tomb artefacts were meant to glorify its deceased master and the master's living family. Tomb figurines of the Tang dynasty were characterized by its wide variety, high quality, energy, performance and lifelikeness.[31] The tomb figurines of Tang China were unprecedented – never before in Chinese history were the figurines endowed with such qualities.[4] The pursuit of more and more vibrant colours led to the invention of the tri-colour glazing technique, or Sancai glaze, to further enhance the visual appearance of the figurines.[13] This great emphasis on performance burial and extravagant tomb figurines in Tang China, is consistent with Tang China's opulent culture, media and arts. This tomb figurine of a horse, was expected to represent not only itself, but also expected to serve and perform a social and cultural role for the Tang dynasty. White Lilacs in a Crystal Vase Manet, 1882 Oil on canvas Manet went out in a blaze of color and sparkle — artistic acts of bravery and bravado. "There's something so incredibly fragile about these flowers," says Getty co-curator Scott Allan. "You feel they could wilt and die as you look at the painting." In his last years, as he was dying of complications from syphilis, artist Édouard Manet was in agonizing pain — but you'd never know it from his art. As he neared the end (he died at just 51) Manet was painting exquisite flower bouquets and vibrant portraits — vigorous, life-affirming canvases Manet had been a bon vivant all his life. A man about town, sociable, debonair. With his vivid flowers — and oranges and some apples and peaches, he maintained the facade. By then it was an illusion, but like his art, it was an illusion he perfected. Co-curator Emily Beeny says Manet's last surviving letter to a friend read: "I'm getting better and better." Portrait of Miss Tyers Philip Jean, Gurnsey, England 1787 Watercolor on ivory Died right as John Aubrey got his first command, the Sophie Allegory of Vanity Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, called Il Benedetto (Italian, 1609 - 1664) 1652-1655 Oil on canvas "passionate student" of Anthony van Dyck, who arrived in 1621, and Peter Paul Rubens. He had various brushes with the law in his lifetime. The Queen's Gallery in London, where an exhibition of his work was held in 2013, made the following statement: "Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione was also a violent and impetuous man, who was repeatedly in court for assault, allegedly attempted to throw his sister off a roof and was forced to leave Rome, probably after committing murder. The turbulence that characterised his life overshadowed his artistic brilliance, and Castiglione struggled to achieve recognition in his lifetime. Much of what is known about the artist is derived not from fulfilled commissions, but from court documents." Fantasy Interior with Jan Steen and the Family of Gerrit Schouten Jan Steen (Dutch, 1626 - 1679) "Easy Come, Easy Go” ca. 1659-1660 ADOil on canvas Interior of the New Church at Delft Hendrick van Vliet (Dutch, 1611 - 1675) ca. 1660-1670 Oil on canvas Self-Portrait at Age Fifty Gerrit Dou (Dutch, 1613 - 1675) 1663 Oil on cradled mahogany panel The Penitent Saint Jerome Antonio d'Enrico, called Tanzio da Varallo (Italian, 1575/1580 - ca.1635) ca. 1627-1630 Oil on canvas The Penitent Magdalene Doménikos Theotokópoulos, called El Greco (Greek, 1541 - 1614) ca. 1580-1585 Oil on canvas El Greco received his initial training as an icon painter of the Cretan school, a leading center of post-Byzantine art. In addition to painting, he probably studied the classics of ancient Greece, and perhaps the Latin classics also; he left a "working library" of 130 volumes at his death, including the Bible in Greek and an annotated Vasari book. Because of his unconventional artistic beliefs (such as his dismissal of Michelangelo's technique) and personality, El Greco soon acquired enemies in Rome. Architect and writer Pirro Ligorio called him a "foolish foreigner", and newly discovered archival material reveals a skirmish with Farnese, who obliged the young artist to leave his palace. ...Lacking the favor of the king (Philip II, Spain, son of the Holy Roman emperor Charles V and Isabella of Portugal, father to Philip III "not fit to rule the kingdom, but would be ruled by it, grandfather of the great Philip IV of the inbred jaw and Rubens), El Greco was obliged to remain in Toledo, where he had been received in 1577 as a great painter.[51] According to Hortensio Félix Paravicino, a 17th-century Spanish preacher and poet, "Crete gave him life and the painter's craft, Toledo a better homeland, where through Death he began to achieve eternal life."[52] In 1585, he appears to have hired an assistant, Italian painter Francisco Preboste, and to have established a workshop capable of producing altar frames and statues as well as paintings.[53] On 12 March 1586 he obtained the commission for The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, now his best-known work. The Last Judgment Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, 1472 - 1553) ca. 1525/1530 Tomb Slab of Maria Ortiz Spanish 1487/1509 Funerary Portrait of a Woman Roman ca. 120-130 AD Marble Preoccupied with attaining immortality through remembrance by the living, the Romans made arrangements to ensure that they were properly memorialized. The wealthy built elaborate tombs that lined major roads into and out of cities, where they would be seen daily by residents and travelers. Most of these monuments bore commemorative inscriptions and were decorated with portraits and sometimes biographical scenes. In addition to serving as sites for annual rituals held by families in honor of the dead, the tombs conspicuously recalled the deceased to all those who passed by and saw them. In the first century B.C., funerary reliefs such as this one were used to decorate modest tombs associated primarily with a class of Romans defined by their status as freed slaves (liberti) or the freeborn children of former slaves. Funerary Relief with Architectural Instruments Roman 1st or 2nd century AD Marble complex, performative rituals surrounding death and burial in ancient Rome while significant expenditures on visual commemoration—elaborate tombs, funerary portraits—defined Roman mortuary culture. Funerary art commissioned by the Roman elite almost never referenced commerce or sources of wealth though this was a driving goal for funerary art of the freedmen. Similarly, elite monuments do not document death rituals, though elites certainly observed them. The Amiternum relief and the Haterii tomb, however, rely on a narrative interplay between death ritual and biography. For these patrons, as for many freedmen and women, their final resting places provided an ideal opportunity for documenting ritual observance and, more importantly, for documenting their success in life and commerce.