vanitasn.
/ˈvanɪtɑːs/ 1. vanitas vanitatum n. (from the Vulgate translation of Ecclesiastes i. 2): vanity of vanities, an exclamation of disillusionment or pessimism; futility.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > expectation > despair, hopelessness > pessimism > exclamation of pessimism or futility [interjection]
vanitas vanitatum1565
1565 J. Jewel Replie Hardinges Answeare iii. 164 This labour may wel be called Vanitas vanitatum.
1848 W. M. Thackeray Vanity 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?
1910 G. K. Chesterton George Bernard Shaw 105 In Shakespeare he saw nothing but profligate pessimism, the vanitas vanitatum of a disappointed voluptuary.
1978 H. Shaw in Islands (N.Z.) Aug. 105 Ah Vanitas! Vanitatum! All had been so totally suppressed, yet..I had sensed certain emanations.
2. (Usually with capital initial.) Used attributively and absol. of a 17th-century Dutch genre of still-life painting that incorporated symbols of mortality or mutability.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > painting and drawing > painting > painting according to subject > [noun] > still-life painting > a still-life painting > types of
game piece1777
flower-piecea1784
fowling-piece1888
xenia1899
vanitas1909
1909 M. L. Clarke tr. Bode 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.
1909 M. L. Clarke tr. Bode Great Masters Dutch & Flem. Painting 239 The ‘Vanitas’ presentments required a monochrome treatment.
1942 Burlington Mag. Dec. 293/1 Paul..was a painter of some consequence, as shown for instance by his Vanitas still-life at Berlin (1636).
1947 C. Hedström & G. Taylor tr. I. Bergström 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.
1963 E. H. Gombrich Medit. on Hobby Horse 104 Is the spread of the genre [sc. still life] due to the religious appeal of the vanitas motif?
1963 E. H. Gombrich Medit. on Hobby Horse 104 Any painted still life is ipso facto also a vanitas.
1980 Times 13 Aug. 14/3 A painting by Frans Hals, ‘Young Man Holding a Skull’..is a vanitas, a reminder of human vanity.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online June 2020).
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