vanitas

American  

[van-i-tahs] / ˈvæn ɪˌtɑs /

noun

1. a type of still-life painting that flourished in the Netherlands from about 1620 to 1650, conveying a religious message and characterized by objects symbolic of mortality and the meaninglessness of worldly pleasures.

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Etymology

Origin of vanitas

1905–10; Latin: literally, vanity

Example Sentences

Harnett had much simpler taste than his patrons, and while “Ease” is not a vanitas painting auguring death, he was known for incorporating traces of humor and irony in his paintings.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 28, 2025

Yet pronk works carried deeper meanings as the earliest forms of vanitas, a genre that uses symbolism to convey the brevity of life and futility of pleasure.

From Salon • Mar. 10, 2024

And she picked up on the morbid side of me — I have a collection of hourglasses and vanitas things with skulls.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 18, 2017

But we must re-envision those lives with the hard truth of vanitas paintings.

From Washington Post • Dec. 10, 2014

You and your acts and the nature of things will be alike enveloped in a single formula, a universal vanitas vanitatum.

From The Will to Believe : and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by James, William