Image: Wikimedia Commons

vanitas

Genre of symbolic work of art

Also known as vanitas still life · vanitas still-life · vanitas picture

Instance of: art genre
Subclass of: still life
, allegory

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Vanitas is a genre of memento mori symbolizing the transience of life, the uselessness of pleasure, and the certainty of death, and thus the vanity of ambition and all worldly desires. The paintings involved still life imagery of transitory items. The genre began in the 16th century and continued into the 17th century. Vanitas art is a type of allegorical art representing a higher ideal. It was a sub-genre of painting heavily employed by Dutch painters during the Baroque period (c.1585–1730). Spanish painters working at the end of the Spanish Golden Age also created vanitas paintings.

Overview

All data

25 statements · 12% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Depicts: Vanitas
Hashtag: vanitas

Data quality

statements

12%

externally sourced

Source last edited September 8, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). vanitas (Q733095). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/vanitas-Q733095