Art Vanitas Meaning

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still life vanitas: In the arts, vanitas is one of the symbolic work of art especially linked a still-life painting of a 17th-century Dutch genre containing symbols of death or change as a reminder of their inevitability, also it is connected with other places and periods. The word vanitas it is actually a Lation word means "vanity" and loosely translated agree to the meaninglessness of earthly life and the transient nature of all earthly goods and pursuits. As applied to vanitas art, the word is drawn from the biblical book of Ecclesiastes.

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
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Trompe L’oeil:
Trompe L’oeil is visual illusion in art, especially as used to trick the eye into perceiving a painted detail as a 3D object. trompe l'oeil was frequently used by the great artists of the Renaissance period, for example, to momentarily trick the viewer into believing that the painted objects they were looking at were real. It is a very difficult technique used by many artists throughout history. there is a story happened between Zeuxis and his friend Parrhasius: his friend was so impressed was fellow artist and rival Parrhasius, that in a few weeks he asked Zeuxis to come to his studio to see his painting. Zeuxis went to Parrhasius' studio and there before him was the painting draped by a curtain. Zeuxis approached the painting and when he tried to pull back the curtain to reveal the painting, he found that the curtain had been painted. So enthralled by the anticipation of a painting "behind" the curtain, Zeuxis was fooled by his rival artist. One can see how troupe l'oeil is the most naturalistic form of realism.Nature

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