Experimental Art subject just got interesting with our new brief Momento-Mori.
A Latin phrase that means : "Remember that you are mortal" mmm interesting so what does really mean for an artist and for a jewelery maker in specific? It means a lot and here is a peak to what it means:
Memento mori is a
Latin phrase translated as "Remember your mortality", "Remember you must die" or "Remember you will die".
[2] It refers to a
genre of artworks that vary widely but which all share the same purpose: to remind people of their mortality, an artistic theme dating back to antiquity.
Popular belief says the phrase originated in ancient Rome: As a Roman general was parading through the streets during a victory
triumph, standing behind him was his slave, tasked with reminding the general that, although at his peak today, tomorrow he could fall, or — more likely — be brought down. The servant is thought to have conveyed this with the warning, "
Memento mori".
It is further possible that the servant may have instead advised, "
Respice post te! Hominem te esse memento! Memento mori!": "Look behind you! Remember that you are but a man! Remember that you'll die!", as noted by
Tertullian in his
Apologeticus.
[3]
Europe — Medieval through Victorian
The thought came into its own with
Christianity[citation needed], whose strong emphasis on
Divine Judgment, heaven, hell, and the salvation of the soul brought death to the forefront of consciousness. Most
memento mori works are products of
Christian art[citation needed], although there are equivalents in
Buddhist art. In the Christian context, the
memento mori acquires a moralizing purpose quite opposed to the
Nunc est bibendum 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 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 the worshipers' heads with the words "Remember Man that you are dust and unto dust you shall return."
Prince of Orange René de Châlons died in 1544 at age 25. His widow commissioned sculptor Ligier Richier to represent him offering his heart to God, set against the painted splendour of his former worldly estate. Church of Saint-Étienne,
Bar-le-Duc.
The most obvious places to look for
memento mori meditations are in funeral art and
architecture. Perhaps 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 create 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 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 former has the sentence "We bones, lying here bare, await for yours.
Quit an interesting phrase don't you think? The jewellery designs that emerged from such a movement is vast and usually has a Dark side to it.
Contemporary approaches to the notion is quite Quirky indeed Julia deVille's designs are the best I found to represent contemporary Momento-mori.
http://juliadeville.com/
So what Momento-Mori jewellery I will come up with that i will leave till next week sure it will be a brief i will enjoy.
