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83-719: The Braque Triptych (or the Braque Family Triptych ) is a c. 1452 oil-on-oak altarpiece by the Early Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden . When open, its three half-length panels reveal, from left to right, John the Baptist , The Virgin Mary with Jesus and Saint John the Evangelist , and on the right, Mary Magdalene . When the wings are closed, the work shows a vanitas motif of

166-688: A Jacobean cult of melancholia that marked the end of the Elizabethan era . In the late eighteenth century, literary elegies were a common genre; Thomas Gray 's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard and Edward Young 's Night Thoughts are typical members of the genre. In the European devotional literature of the Renaissance, the Ars Moriendi , memento mori had moral value by reminding individuals of their mortality. Apart from

249-456: A 17th-century Puritan, fought in many naval battles and also painted. In his self-portrait, we see these pursuits represented alongside a typical Puritan memento mori with a skull, suggesting his awareness of imminent death. The poem underneath the skull emphasizes Thomas Smith's acceptance of death and of turning away from the world of the living: Why why should I the World be minding, Therein

332-513: A Dutch writer on painting techniques, considered oak to be the most useful wooden substrate on which to paint. However, exceptions are seen rather early in the seventeenth century: sometimes walnut, pearwood , cedarwood , or Indian woods were used. Mahogany was already in use by a number of painters during the first decades of the seventeenth century and was used often in the Netherlands in the nineteenth century. Even so, when canvas or copper

415-539: A World of Evils Finding. Then Farwell World: Farwell thy jarres, thy Joies thy Toies thy Wiles thy Warrs. Truth Sounds Retreat: I am not sorye. The Eternall Drawes to him my heart, By Faith (which can thy Force Subvert) To Crowne me (after Grace) with Glory. Much memento mori art is associated with the Mexican festival Day of the Dead , including skull-shaped candies and bread loaves adorned with bread "bones". This theme

498-409: A bounty of opportunities in terms of your body, environment, friends, spiritual mentors, time, and practical instructions, without procrastinating until tomorrow and the next day, arouse a sense of urgency, as if a spark landed on your body or a grain of sand fell in your eye. If you have not swiftly applied yourself to practice, examine the births and deaths of other beings and reflect again and again on

581-454: A curved speech balloon which emits from his mouth. The words, taken from John 1:29, read "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world". In the right hand panel Mary Magdalene is depicted in sumptuous and highly detailed dress in an image considered to be one of the finest of van der Weyden's female portraits. At 68 cm wide, the center panel is almost twice the breadth of

664-463: A highly deliberate and symmetrical manner. The pattern they form across the three interior panels echoes the narrative of the triptych as indicated by the balloons. However, the flow is interrupted in the Magdalene panel, her hand is raised vertically as if a barrier to the other panels, while her text is in a straight horizontal rather than curved. When the wings are closed across the central panel,

747-458: A joke to prepare to live forever! Wherever you are born in the heights or depths of saṃsāra, the great noose of suffering will hold you tight. Acquiring freedom for yourself is as rare as a star in the daytime, so how is it possible to practice and achieve liberation? The root of all mind training and practical instructions is planted by knowing the nature of existence. There is no other way. I, an old vagabond, have shaken my beggar's satchel, and this

830-776: A necessary and god-given vale of tears with death as a ransom, and they reminded people to lead sinless lives to stand a chance at Judgment Day . The following two Latin stanzas (with their English translations) are typical of memento mori in medieval music; they are from the virelai Ad Mortem Festinamus of the Llibre Vermell de Montserrat from 1399: Vita brevis breviter in brevi finietur, Mors venit velociter quae neminem veretur, Omnia mors perimit et nulli miseretur. Ad mortem festinamus peccare desistamus. Ni conversus fueris et sicut puer factus Et vitam mutaveris in meliores actus, Intrare non poteris regnum Dei beatus. Ad mortem festinamus peccare desistamus. Life

913-452: A range of about 20 years), and dendrochronology sequences have been developed for the main source areas of timber for panels. Italian paintings used local or sometimes Dalmatian wood, most often poplar , but including chestnut , walnut , oak and other woods. The Netherlands ran short of local timber early in the 15th century, and most Early Netherlandish masterpieces are Baltic oak , often Polish , cut north of Warsaw and shipped down

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996-637: A similar fashion. In Tibetan Buddhism, there is a mind training practice known as Lojong . The initial stages of the classic Lojong begin with 'The Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind', or, more literally, 'Four Contemplations to Cause a Revolution in the Mind'. The second of these four is the contemplation on impermanence and death. In particular, one contemplates that; There are a number of classic verse formulations of these contemplations meant for daily reflection to overcome our strong habitual tendency to live as though we will certainly not die today. The following

1079-400: A skull and cross. The Braque Triptych is the only surviving devotional work by van der Weyden known to be painted for private rather than public display. The altarpiece was probably commissioned by either Jehan Braque of Tournai or, more likely, his wife Catherine de Brabant – possibly after Jehan's sudden and early death in 1452. The couple had been married for only a brief period. Catherine

1162-414: Is a response to the growing recognition that significant collections of paintings on wood panels may be at risk in coming decades due to the waning numbers of conservators and craftspeople with the highly specialized skills required for the conservation of these complex works of art. Artists would typically use wood native to the region. Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), for example, painted on poplar when he

1245-642: Is another well-known example of the memento mori theme, with its dancing depiction of the Grim Reaper carrying off rich and poor alike. This and similar depictions of Death decorated many European churches. Memento mori was the salutation used by the Hermits of St. Paul of France (1620–1633), also known as the Brothers of Death. It is sometimes claimed that the Trappists use this salutation, but this

1328-529: Is encased in glass. Inscription and free floating text play a major role in the work. Each interior panel contains Latin inscriptions issuing from the figures' mouths or floating above them, serving as either speech bubbles or commentary. They are echoed by the words inscribed on the cross of the left exterior panel. The texts are all taken from the Gospel of John , except for that of the Virgin's, which comes from

1411-478: Is explained by the poverty of the country at this time, as well as the lack of Reformation iconoclasm . The 13th and 14th centuries in Italy were a great period of panel painting, mostly altarpieces or other religious works. However, it is estimated that of all the panel paintings produced there, 99.9 percent have been lost. The vast majority of Early Netherlandish paintings are on panel, and these include most of

1494-641: Is first mentioned, unattributed, in Catherine de Brabant's 1497 will when she left it to her grandson Jehan Villain. Records show the altarpiece in the possession of her heirs until 1586, after which it was purchased by a priest in England. It later came into the possession of the English painter Richard Evans . It was purchased by the Musée du Louvre from the writer and benefactor Lady Theodora Guest , in 1913. At

1577-568: Is first used in early Buddhist texts, the suttapiṭaka of the Pāli Canon , with parallels in the āgamas of the "Northern" Schools. In Japan, the influence of Zen Buddhist contemplation of death on indigenous culture can be gauged by the following quotation from the classic treatise on samurai ethics, Hagakure : The Way of the Samurai is, morning after morning, the practice of death, considering whether it will be here or be there, imagining

1660-460: Is from the Lalitavistara Sūtra , a major work in the classical Sanskrit canon: ज्वलितं त्रिभवं जरव्याधिदुखैः मरणाग्निप्रदीप्तमनाथमिदम्। भवनि शरणे सद मूढ जगत् भ्रमती भ्रमरो यथ कुम्भगतो॥ अध्रुवं त्रिभवं शरदभ्रनिभं नटरङ्गसमा जगिर् ऊर्मिच्युती। गिरिनद्यसमं लघुशीघ्रजवं व्रजतायु जगे यथ विद्यु नभे॥ Beings are ablaze with the sufferings of sickness and old age, And with no defence against

1743-452: Is no adding onto it. Shall I not die then? BCA 2:39 For a person seized by the messengers of Death, what good is a relative and what good is a friend? At that time, merit alone is a protection, and I have not applied myself to it. BCA 2:41 In a practice text written by the 19th century Tibetan master Dudjom Lingpa for serious meditators , he formulates the second contemplation in this way: On this occasion when you have such

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1826-438: Is not to be trusted by the healthy or the ill, for it is like an unexpected, great thunderbolt. BCA 2.33 My enemies will not remain, nor will my friends remain. I shall not remain. Nothing will remain. BCA 2:35 Whatever is experienced will fade to a memory. Like an experience in a dream, everything that has passed will not be seen again. BCA 2:36 Day and night, a life span unceasingly diminishes, and there

1909-410: Is not true. Colonial American art saw a large number of memento mori images due to Puritan influence. The Puritan community in 17th-century North America looked down upon art because they believed that it drew the faithful away from God and, if away from God, then it could only lead to the devil. However, portraits were considered historical records and, as such, they were allowed. Thomas Smith ,

1992-427: Is possible." Jean-Paul Sartre expressed that life is given to us early, and is shortened at the end, all the while taken away at every step of the way, emphasizing that the end is only the beginning every day. The Buddhist practice maraṇasati meditates on death. The word is a Pāli compound of maraṇa 'death' (an Indo-European cognate of Latin mori ) and sati 'awareness', so very close to memento mori . It

2075-478: Is short, and shortly it will end; Death comes quickly and respects no one, Death destroys everything and takes pity on no one. To death we are hastening, let us refrain from sinning. If you do not turn back and become like a child, And change your life for the better, You will not be able to enter, blessed, the Kingdom of God. To death we are hastening, let us refrain from sinning. The danse macabre

2158-459: Is the remembrance of thee to a man that hath peace in his possessions! To a man that is at rest, and whose ways are prosperous in all things, and that is yet able to take meat! ). The approximate dating of the triptych is based the death of Jehan Braque in 1452, and the fact that the interior panels show an Italian influence, and is considered one of the first of his later more austere mature period works; van der Wyeden had visited Italy in 1450. It

2241-401: The vanitas and Danse Macabre in visual art and cadaver monuments in sculpture. In English, the phrase is typically pronounced / m ə ˈ m ɛ n t oʊ ˈ m ɔːr i / , mə- MEN -toh MOR -ee . Memento is the 2nd person singular active future imperative of meminī , 'to remember, to bear in mind', usually serving as a warning: "remember!" Morī is

2324-498: The Gospel of Luke . The words of John the Baptist curve upwards from his mouth to the top right corner of the frame, and seem to join those of the Virgin in the center panel, which in turn flow along the top of the center panel. The words of the Magdalen, in contrast, form a flat horizontal line, breaking the curved left to right continuity of the text of the left and central panels. Similarly The Magdalene's words differ from that of

2407-471: The Romanesque period, and Byzantine icons were imported, there are next to no survivals in an unaltered state. In the 12th century panel painting experienced a revival. Altarpieces seem to have begun to be used during the 11th century, with the possible exception of a few earlier examples. They became more common in the 13th century because of new liturgical practices—the priest and congregation were now on

2490-557: The Vistula , across the Baltic to the Netherlands. Southern German painters often used pine , and mahogany imported into Europe was used by later painters, including examples by Rembrandt and Goya. In theory, dendro-chronology gives an exact felling date, but in practice allowances have to be made for a seasoning period of several years, and a small panel may be from the centre of the tree, with no way of knowing how many rings outside

2573-402: The present infinitive of the deponent verb morior 'to die'. Thus, the phrase literally translates as "you must remember to die" but may be loosely rendered as "remember death" or "remember that you die". The philosopher Democritus trained himself by going into solitude and frequenting tombs. Plato 's Phaedo , where the death of Socrates is recounted, introduces the idea that

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2656-510: The salvation of the soul brought death to the forefront of consciousness. 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

2739-560: The 19th century, when reliable techniques were developed, many have been transferred to canvas or modern board supports . This can result in damage to the paint layer, as historical transfer techniques were rather brutal. Paintings on wood panel that were expanded, such as Rubens' A View of Het Steen in the Early Morning (which consists of eighteen separate panels, seventeen added as the artist enlarged his composition), often suffer greatly over time. Each warps in its own way, tearing

2822-474: The 5th or 6th centuries, and are the oldest panel paintings which seem to be of the highest contemporary quality. Encaustic and tempera are the two techniques used in antiquity. Encaustic largely ceased to be used after the early Byzantine icons. Although there seem from literary references to have been some panel paintings produced in Western Europe through the centuries between Late Antiquity and

2905-661: The Christ or the Virgin, with the saints appropriate to the dedication of the church, and the local town or diocese, or to the donor. Donor portraits including members of the donor's family are also often shown, usually kneeling to the side. They were for some time a cheaper alternative to the far more prestigious equivalents in metalwork, decorated with gems, enamels , and perhaps ivory figures, most of which have long been broken up for their valuable materials. Painted panels for altars are most numerous in Spain, especially Catalonia , which

2988-437: The Dead . Roman Krznaric suggests memento mori is an important topic to bring back into our thoughts and belief system; "Philosophers have come up with lots of what I call 'death tasters' – thought experiments for seizing the day." These thought experiments are powerful to get us re-oriented back to death into current awareness and living with spontaneity. Albert Camus stated "Come to terms with death, thereafter anything

3071-506: The Elder (1472–1553). Cranach often used beech wood—an unusual choice. In Northern Europe, poplar is very rarely found, but walnut and chestnut are not uncommon. In the northeast and south, coniferous trees such as spruce , and various types of fir , and pine have been used. Fir wood is shown to have been used in the Upper and Middle Rhine, Augsburg , Nuremberg , and Saxony . Pinewood

3154-520: The Old Testament urge a remembrance of death. In Psalm 90 , Moses prays that God would teach his people "to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom" ( Ps. 90:12 ). In Ecclesiastes , the Preacher insists that "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart" ( Eccl. 7:2 ). In Isaiah,

3237-1216: The Pali, Sanskrit and Tibetan canons states [this is from the Sanskrit version, the Udānavarga : सर्वे क्षयान्ता निचयाः पतनान्ताः समुच्छ्रयाः | सम्योगा विप्रयोगान्ता मरणान्तं हि जीवितम् |1,22| All that is acquired will be lost What rises will fall Where there is meeting there will be separation What is born will surely die. Shantideva , in the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra 'Bodhisattva's Way of Life' reflects at length: कृताकृतापरीक्षोऽयं मृत्युर्विश्रम्भघातकः। स्वस्थास्वस्थैरविश्वास्य आकमिस्मकमहाशनि:॥ २/३४॥ अप्रिया न भविष्यन्ति प्रियो मे न भविष्यति। अहं च न भविष्यामि सर्वं च न भविष्यति॥ २/३७॥ तत्तत्स्मरणताम याति यद्यद्वस्त्वनुभयते। स्वप्नानुभूतवत्सर्वं गतं न पूनरीक्ष्यते॥ २/३६॥ रात्रिन्दिवमविश्राममायुषो वर्धते व्ययः। आयस्य चागमो नास्ति न मरिष्यामि किं न्वहम्॥ २/४० यमदूतैर्गृहीतस्य कुतो बन्धुः कुतः सुह्रत्। पुण्यमेकं तदा त्राणं मया तच्च न सेवितम्॥ २/४१॥ Death does not differentiate between tasks done and undone. This traitor

3320-439: The beginning of the 15th century, oil painting was developed. This was more tolerant, and allowed the exceptional detail of Early Netherlandish art. This used a very painstaking multi-layered technique, where the painting, or a particular part of it, had to be left for a couple of days for one layer to dry before the next was applied. Wood panels, especially if kept with too little humidity, often warp and crack with age, and from

3403-608: The bulk of surviving panel painting from the Imperial Roman period – about 900 face or bust portraits survive. The Severan Tondo , also from Roman Egypt (about 200 AD), is one of the handful of non-funerary Graeco-Roman specimens to survive. Wood has always been the normal support for the Icons of Byzantine art and the later Orthodox traditions, the earliest of which (all in Saint Catherine's Monastery ) date from

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3486-437: The celebrated automaton clocks from Augsburg , Germany, had Death striking the hour. Private people carried smaller reminders of their own mortality. Mary, Queen of Scots owned a large watch carved in the form of a silver skull, embellished with the lines of Horace , "Pale death knocks with the same tempo upon the huts of the poor and the towers of Kings." In the late 16th and through the 17th century, memento mori jewelry

3569-412: The conflagration of Death The bewildered, seeking refuge in worldly existence Spin round and round, like bees trapped in a jar. The three worlds are fleeting like autumn clouds. Like a staged performance, beings come and go. In tumultuous waves, rushing by, like rapids over a cliff. Like lightning, wanderers in samsara burst into existence, and are gone in a flash. A very well known verse in

3652-507: The earliest portraits , such as those by Jan van Eyck , and some other secular scenes. However, one of the earliest surviving oils on canvas is a French Madonna with angels of about 1410 in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin , which is very early indeed for oil painting also. In these works the frame and panel are sometimes a single piece of wood, as with Portrait of a Man (Self Portrait?) by van Eyck ( National Gallery, London ), where

3735-584: The end of the 16th century, used by many artists including Adam Elsheimer . Many Dutch painters of the Golden Age used panel for their small works, including Rembrandt on occasion. By the 18th century it had become unusual to paint on panel, except for small works to be inset into furniture, and the like. But, for example, The National Gallery in London has two Goya portraits on panel. Many other painting traditions also painted, and still paint, on wood, but

3818-465: The exterior reveals a memento mori or vanitas motif of a skull and cross which is decorated with Latin inscriptions. The outer left hand wing shows a yellow-brown skull leaning against a broken brick or stone fragment alongside the coat of arms of the Braque family – a sheaf of wheat – seen on the upper right portion of the panel. It has been suggested that the skull is a future state representation of

3901-430: The feet of Jesus . Van der Weyden had used the technique of floating inscriptions earlier, notably in the center panel of his c. 1445–50 Beaune Altarpiece , where words appear to float in the pictorial space or are seemingly sewn into the clothes of the figures. The left panel is a half-length depiction of John the Baptist , with a background showing a scene from the baptism of Christ. John's words float above him as

3984-542: The first half of the 16th century, a change led by Mantegna and the artists of Venice (which made the finest canvas at this point, for sails). In the Netherlands the change took about a century longer, and panel paintings remained common, especially in Northern Europe, even after the cheaper and more portable canvas had become the main support medium. The young Rubens and many other painters preferred it for

4067-618: The frame was also painted, including an inscription done illusionistically to resemble carving. By the 15th century with the increased wealth of Europe, and later the appearance of humanism, and a changing attitude about the function of art and patronage, panel painting went in new directions. Secular art opened the way to the creation of chests, painted beds, birth trays and other furniture. Many such works are now detached and hung framed on walls in museums. Many double-sided wings of altarpieces (see picture at top) have also been sawn into two one-sided panels. Canvas took over from panel in Italy by

4150-575: The genre of requiem and funeral music, there is also a rich tradition of memento mori in the Early Music of Europe. Especially those facing the ever-present death during the recurring bubonic plague pandemics from the 1340s onward tried to toughen themselves by anticipating the inevitable in chants , from the simple Geisslerlieder of the Flagellant movement to the more refined cloistral or courtly songs. The lyrics often looked at life as

4233-443: The greater precision that could be achieved with a totally solid support, and many of his most important works also used it, even for paintings over four metres long in one dimension. His panels are of notoriously complicated construction, containing as many as seventeen pieces of wood ( Het Steen , National Gallery, London ). For smaller cabinet paintings , copper sheets (often old printmaking plates) were another rival support, from

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4316-642: The impermanence of human endeavours and of the decay that is inevitable with the passage of time. See also the themes associated with the image of the skull . The 2007 screenprint by the street-artist Banksy "Grin Reaper" features the Grim Reaper with acid-house smiley face sitting on a clock demonstrating death awaiting us all. Memento mori is also an important literary theme. Well-known literary meditations on death in English prose include Sir Thomas Browne 's Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial and Jeremy Taylor 's Holy Living and Holy Dying . These works were part of

4399-445: The interiors of public buildings with very large and complicated subjects containing numerous figures at least half life-size, and including battle scenes. We can only attempt to imagine what these looked like from some detailed literary descriptions and vase-paintings that appear to echo their compositions. The first century BC to third century AD Fayum mummy portraits , preserved in the exceptionally dry conditions of Egypt , provide

4482-618: The left and right panels. It shows Christ Salvator Mundi , his head a near-replica of his depiction in the Last Judgment triptych. The center panel acts as a "picture within a picture", the context of which is "narrated" by the balloons from the mouths of John and Mary. John the Evangelist and Jesus' right hands are raised in the traditional Christian pose or gesture of the teacher. Their index and middle fingers are held upright while their two small fingers are close to their thumbs. The hand gestures and fingers of each saint are arranged in

4565-587: The lifespan of human beings is compared to the short lifespan of grass: "The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass " ( Is. 40:7 ). The expression memento mori developed with the growth of Christianity, which emphasized Heaven , Hell , Hades and salvation of the soul in the afterlife . The thought was then utilized in Christianity, whose strong emphasis on divine judgment , heaven , hell , and

4648-399: The medieval period onwards. The most common motif is a skull, often accompanied by bones. Often this alone is enough to evoke the trope, but other motifs include a coffin, hourglass , or wilting flowers to signify the impermanence of life. Often these would accompany a different central subject within a wider work, such as portraiture, however the concept includes standalone genres such as

4731-418: The most sightly way of dying, and putting one's mind firmly in death. Although this may be a most difficult thing, if one will do it, it can be done. There is nothing that one should suppose cannot be done. In the annual appreciation of cherry blossom and fall colors, hanami and momijigari , it was philosophized that things are most splendid at the moment before their fall, and to aim to live and die in

4814-452: The most striking to contemporary minds is the transi or cadaver tomb , a tomb that depicts the decayed corpse of the deceased. This became a fashion in the tombs of the wealthy in the fifteenth century, and surviving examples still offer a stark reminder of the vanity of earthly riches. Later, Puritan tomb stones in the colonial United States frequently depicted winged skulls, skeletons, or angels snuffing out candles. These are among

4897-672: The numerous themes associated with skull imagery . Another example of memento mori is provided by the chapels of bones, such as the Capela dos Ossos in Évora or the Capuchin Crypt in Rome. These are chapels where the walls are totally or partially covered by human remains, mostly bones. The entrance to the Capela dos Ossos has the following sentence: "We bones, lying here bare, await yours." Timepieces have been used to illustrate that

4980-430: The oldest surviving Greek panel paintings. Most classical Greek paintings that were famous in their day seem to have been of a size comparable to smaller modern works – perhaps up to a half-length portrait size. However, for a generation in the second quarter of the fifth-century BC there was a movement, called the "new painting" and led by Polygnotus , for very large painted friezes , apparently painted on wood, decorating

5063-438: The other panels; they are not uttered by her and instead consist as a detached commentary on her. It is perhaps because of this that they are not rendered with, as art historian Alfred Acres puts it, the "sinuous grace" of the others, as they are "words written of the Magdalene not spoken or written by her." Her text, from John 12:3, reads Mary therefore took a pound of ointment of right spikenard , of great price, and anointed

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5146-444: The overall piece apart at the seams. Wood panel is now rather more useful to art historians than canvas, and in recent decades there has been great progress in extracting this information. Many fakes have been discovered and mistaken datings corrected. Specialists can identify the tree species used, which varied according to the area where the painting was made. Carbon-dating techniques can give an approximate date-range (typically to

5229-583: The panel there were. So dendro-chronological conclusions tend to be expressed as a "terminus post quem" or an earliest possible date, with a tentative estimate of an actual date, that may be twenty or more years later. The so-called Panel Paintings Initiative is a multi-year project in collaboration between the Getty Conservation Institute, the Getty Foundation , and the J. Paul Getty Museum . The Panel Paintings Initiative

5312-551: The proper practice of philosophy is "about nothing else but dying and being dead". 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. 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". The Stoic Marcus Aurelius invited

5395-467: 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

5478-603: The reader (himself) to "consider how ephemeral and mean all mortal things are" in his Meditations . In some accounts of the Roman triumph , a companion or public slave would stand behind or near the triumphant general during the procession and remind him from time to time of his own mortality or prompt him to "look behind". A version of this warning is often rendered into English as "Remember, Caesar , thou art mortal", for example in Fahrenheit 451 . Several passages in

5561-494: The same side of the altar, leaving the space behind the altar free for the display of a holy image—and thus altar decorations were in demand. The habit of placing decorated reliquaries of saints on or behind the altar, as well as the tradition of decorating the front of the altar with sculptures or textiles, preceded the first altarpieces. The earliest forms of panel painting were dossals (altar backs), altar fronts and crucifixes . All were painted with religious images, commonly

5644-426: The seventeenth century about four thousand full-grown oak trees were needed to build a medium-sized merchant ship; thus, imported wood was necessary. Oak coming from Königsberg as well as Gdańsk is often found among works by Flemish and Dutch artists from the 15th through the 17th centuries; the origin can be established by the patterns of growth rings . In the last decade of the seventeenth century, Wilhelmus Beurs ,

5727-571: The skull may not have been symbolically relevant to the Braque family, as they were well-established as advisers and financiers to the House of Valois . Instead, the argue, it may represent Adam, or a piece of Golgotha . The right panel contains a cross with a Latin inscription based on Ecclesiasticus XLI: 1–2. The words read as o mors quam amara est memoria tua homini pacem habenti in substantiis suis. viro quieto et cuius viae directae sunt in omnibus et adhuc valenti accipere cibum ( O death, how bitter

5810-494: The term is usually only used to refer to the Western tradition described above. The technique is known to us through Cennino Cennini 's "The Craftsman's Handbook" ( Il libro dell' arte ) published in 1390, and other sources. It changed little over the centuries. It was a laborious and painstaking process: Once the panel construction was complete, the design was laid out, usually in charcoal. The usual ancient painting technique

5893-399: The time of the living on Earth grows shorter with each passing minute. Public clocks would be decorated with mottos such as ultima forsan ("perhaps the last" [hour]) or vulnerant omnes, ultima necat ("they all wound, and the last kills"). Clocks have carried the motto tempus fugit , "time flees". Old striking clocks often sported automata who would appear and strike the hour; some of

5976-773: The time, it was considered the most important acquisition by the public gallery since 1878 when they were bequeathed a major work by Hans Memling . At the time it was a record price paid for a van der Weyden; J. P. Morgan had earlier spent $ 100,000 on the Annunciation now in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art . Panel painting Panel painting is very old; it was a very prestigious medium in Greece and Rome, but only very few examples of ancient panel paintings have survived. A series of 6th century BC painted tablets from Pitsa ( Greece ) represent

6059-407: The unpredictability of your lifespan and the time of your death, and on the uncertainty of your own situation. Meditate on this until you have definitively integrated it with your mind... The appearances of this life, including your surroundings and friends, are like last night's dream, and this life passes more swiftly than a flash of lightning in the sky. There is no end to this meaningless work. What

6142-437: The viewer. The panel is one of the earliest known examples of a skull used in a vanitas, while the broken brick, cross and inscriptions present imagery of death and decay typical of the genre. Brick in such works usually symbolise ruin, either of buildings or a dynasties, in this case given the inclusion of the Braque family crest, it can be assumed to serve as reminder to members of the latter. Other art historians believe that

6225-455: The worshipers' heads with the words, "Remember Man that you are dust and unto dust, you shall return." Memento mori has been an important part of ascetic disciplines as a means of perfecting the character by cultivating detachment and other virtues, and by turning the attention towards the immortality of the soul and the afterlife. The most obvious places to look for memento mori meditations are in funeral art and architecture . Perhaps

6308-548: Was encaustic , used at Al-Fayum and in the earliest surviving Byzantine icons, which are at the Saint Catherine's Monastery. This uses heated wax as the medium for the pigments. This was replaced before the end of first millennium by tempera , which uses an egg-yolk medium. Using small brushes dipped in a mixture of pigment and egg-yolk, the paint was applied in very small, almost transparent, brushstrokes. Thin layers of paint would be used to create volumetric forms. By

6391-532: Was also famously expressed in the works of the Mexican engraver José Guadalupe Posada , in which people from various walks of life are depicted as skeletons. Another manifestation of memento mori is found in the Mexican "Calavera", a literary composition in verse form normally written in honour of a person who is still alive, but written as if that person were dead. These compositions have a comedic tone and are often offered from one friend to another during Day of

6474-745: Was in Venice and on oak when in the Netherlands and southern Germany. Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) used oak for his paintings in France; Hans Baldung Grien (1484/85–1545) and Hans Holbein (1497/98–1543) used oak while working in southern Germany and England. In the Middle Ages, spruce and lime were used in the Upper Rhine and often in Bavaria. Outside of the Rhineland, softwood (such as pinewood)

6557-527: Was mainly used. Of a group of twenty Norwegian altar frontals from the Gothic period (1250–1350) fourteen were made of fir, two of oak, and four of pine (Kaland 1982). Large altars made in Denmark during the fifteenth century used oak for the figures as well as for the painted wings. Lime was popular with Albrecht Altdorfer (c. 1480–1538), Baldung Grien , Christoph Amberger (d. 1562), Dürer, and Lucas Cranach

6640-431: Was much younger than her husband; when they married in 1450 or early 1451, she was 20 and some 12 or 13 years his junior. She evidently held a deep and lasting affection for him. When she died, almost 50 years after him, she had asked to be buried alongside him, despite remarrying years earlier. Today the triptych is on permanent display in the Musée du Louvre , Paris, in its original oak frame. Because of its fragility, it

6723-408: Was not used, the main oeuvre of the northern school was painted on oak panels. Memento mori Memento mori (Latin for "remember (that you have) to die") is an artistic or symbolic trope acting as a reminder of the inevitability of death . The concept has its roots in the philosophers of classical antiquity and Christianity , and appeared in funerary art and architecture from

6806-728: Was popular. Items included mourning rings , pendants , lockets , and brooches . These pieces depicted tiny motifs of skulls, bones, and coffins, in addition to messages and names of the departed, picked out in precious metals and enamel . During the same period there emerged the artistic genre known as vanitas , Latin for "emptiness" or "vanity". Especially popular in Holland and then spreading to other European nations , vanitas paintings typically represented assemblages of numerous symbolic objects such as human skulls, guttering candles, wilting flowers, soap bubbles, butterflies, and hourglasses. In combination, vanitas assemblies conveyed

6889-684: Was used mainly in Tirol and beech wood only in Saxony . However, in general, oak was the most common substrate used for panel making in the Low Countries , northern Germany, and the Rhineland around Cologne . In France, until the seventeenth century, most panels were made from oak, although a few made of walnut and poplar have been found. The oak favored as a support by the painters of the northern school was, however, not always of local origin. In

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