The servant did so to remind the general that, despite his success in battle, he too will ultimately fall. This detail from the larger work Danse Macabre (the dance of death), painted by artist Bernt Notke in the late 1400s, depicts the reality of the human condition by showing that even the highest and most mighty, such as kings and queens, will ultimately “dance to their graves,” i.e., die.Īccording to popular legend, a servant originally uttered “memento mori” to a military leader as the latter celebrated a great victory during a public parade in ancient Rome. The photo above provides a superb illustration of memento mori. In the latter instance, a death’s head on a tombstone is a classic example of memento mori writ in stone. They also appear in song lyrics and musical compositions, however, as well as architectural details and decorations photographs religious rites jewelry and timepieces poems and literary writings and, naturally, on cemetery tombs, headstones and gravemarkers. Memento mori are generally symbolic in nature and often appear in paintings, sculptures and other works of art. Roughly translated, the Latin phrase memento mori means, “Remember that you must die.” The term memento mori (pl.) refers to any reminder or warning intended to prompt human beings to remember the inevitability of death and their own mortality. If euphemisms help people avoid the reality of death, then memento mori serve the opposite purpose. Like all memento mori, the painting’s imagery reminds us that Death is the “great leveler” and that everyone – even kings and queens – will eventually die. Detail from “Danse Macabre” (the dance of death) by artist Bernt Notke, circa late 1400s.
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