| 释义 |
‖ vanitas|ˈvænɪtɑːs|
[L., lit. ‘vanity, emptiness’.]
1. vanitas vanitatum (from the Vulgate transl. of Eccles. i. 2): vanity of vanities, an exclamation of disillusionment or pessimism; futility.
1565J. Jewel Replie unto M. Hardinges Answeare iii. 164 This labour may well be called Vanitas vanitatum. 1848Thackeray Van. Fair lxvii. 624 Ah! Vanitas Vanitatum! Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied? 1910Chesterton G. B. Shaw 105 In Shakespeare he saw nothing but profligate pessimism, the vanitas vanitatum of a disappointed voluptuary. 1978H. Shaw in Islands (N.Z.) Aug. 105 Ah Vanitas! Vanitatum! All had been so totally suppressed, yet..I had sensed certain emanations.
2. (Usu. with capital initial.) Used attrib. and absol. of a 17th-century Dutch genre of still-life painting that incorporated symbols of mortality or mutability.
1909M. L. Clarke tr. Bode's Great Masters Dutch & Flem. Painting 241 The artist [sc. J. Davidsz. de Heem] became a follower of the peculiar art movement of the older Leyden still-life painters, as several pictures of a ‘Vanitas’ show. Ibid. 239 The ‘Vanitas’ presentments required a monochrome treatment. 1942Burlington Mag. Dec. 293/1 Paul..was a painter of some consequence, as shown for instance by his Vanitas still-life at Berlin (1636). 1947Bergström & Taylor tr. Bergström's Dutch Still-Life Painting 17th Cent. iv. 154 On account of its literary symbolism, often rather elaborate, the Vanitas occupies a special place among the forms of Dutch still-life painting. 1963E. H. Gombrich Meditations on Hobby Horse 104 Is the spread of the genre [sc. still life] due to the religious appeal of the vanitas motif? Ibid., Any painted still life is ipso facto also a vanitas. 1980Times 13 Aug. 14/3 A painting by Frans Hals, ‘Young Man Holding a Skull’..is a vanitas, a reminder of human vanity. |