I keep a single skull on my desk to remind me of the ephemeral nature of life. To remind myself to feast the arts, eat the food, devour the music, consume in moderation that which we call life. To some, it appears quite morbid, but for me it is anything but. It reminds me of the importance of not just living but of realizing I am alive.
@amberdong72958 ай бұрын
Well said !
@SquigglesZero2 жыл бұрын
I think we could benefit a lot of facing the fact of death. We all will die, this is a fact. Death is part of our nature, same as love or life. My opinion is that we find these ideas so painful, because we are blinded by the idea of being forever young and that we need to be in control. These ideas make death scary and depressing. Accepting death and reminding our selves of the finite nature our life, the unavoidable and many times sudden nature of death are the keys of freedom. More times than not, we don't have a second chance. I am with Epictetus on this one.
@ditchdigger54773 жыл бұрын
Memento Mori is something that has been forgotten in our current times. It is because we have forgotten to remember, that the governments are getting away with what they have over the last year. Use the fear of death as a manipulation tool. Personally, these images remind a person to live their best life possible before the inevitable. But, do not take yourself too seriously or become too attached. You have an interesting take on the subject and enjoyed what you had to say. Strange that someone would enjoy a talk on, "Memento Mori."
@30secondsflat3 жыл бұрын
It always strikes me that in vanitas paintings, the symbols of death were rarely framed as the center of the paintings, and just one element of a larger panoply of those things that make life. Life and death are rarely binaries--they are, by and large, a continuum of a the spectrum of our human journey.
@anartismal3 жыл бұрын
This isn't depressing, its humbling
@PandemoniumGameDev3 жыл бұрын
I would argue that the subject of death shouldn't be considered dark or morbid, people choose not to think or talk about death but if you actually embrace it makes our lives more urgent and meaningful. You could choose to ignore this fundamental truth, run away from it or label it as something tragic or you could reflect on it and enjoy every moment that you have because you never know when it all ends.
@voodoodolly2 жыл бұрын
I agree wholeheartedly.
@ricardosalek74353 жыл бұрын
You are a very nice guy. The way you talk in the beginning of the video was really kind.
@julia.mcconnell6 ай бұрын
Enjoyed watching this video while eating lunch. I love anything related to the Memento Mori theme
@coyoteunclean3 жыл бұрын
These are reminders of death, to be sure, some more subtle than others. I think it's significant that the new testament spends a large portion of the text in urging folks not to fear death, so long as they get their sacrifice right and they reconcile their motivations properly. Death is there waiting, of course, but your span of control only includes the manner of your life and the example that you provide in living. I've only lately discovered the Apocryphal books of the bible. I think they provide needed context in the overall philosophy of Christianity, specifically about these subjects. Well done, as always and I thank the gentleman.
@stonehartfloydfan3 жыл бұрын
Maybe I am odd but I have not ever found these paintings depressing, to me they end up being an encouragement to enjoy what I am doing and have done, however, art as an experience is always personal and if it has one goal it is to provoke a response and that response is entirely up to the beholder.
@ingridwitt23713 жыл бұрын
Totally agree with you
@eve_______5 ай бұрын
Bro I hate people like you so much, “Maybe I am odd” Like you perfectly know that this is one of the most popular responses to momento mori, yet we still resort to such comments as a means of manipulation. Yes you are very unique, inspiring and everything best, go reply with “chill bro” or some other bs.
@audreydimmel66742 жыл бұрын
Thank you for this prelude. I admit, I didn't realize when I started watching that I wasn't thinking about my own mental health at the moment and that this might not be the best thing for me to watch as I'm currently trying to move on from some past traumas. And even if I had realized that, I might not have hit pause at any point because I've always believed in just trying to tough things out. I like your perspective considerably more than mine, and I'm grateful that you took the time to address people like me who might not be in a good frame of mind to receive this sort of sobering content. Most channels probably would have only put a "viewer discretion advised," and I think most of us would agree that often just piques curiosity. Anyway thanks again, and I will definitely make sure to watch both parts eventually once I'm a little better off!
@Pitmirk_3 жыл бұрын
I had the frans hals pic on a postcard in my office for 25 yrs. Was given to me with an inscription to the effect of memento mori. After a yr away on lockdown, can no remember for sure that it is there.. odd. Great vid again. Mors aurem vellens: vivite, ait, venio. Here's death tweaking my ear: live, he says, for I'm coming.
@EmpireoftheMind3 жыл бұрын
Beautiful.
@castelodeossos3947 Жыл бұрын
The painting at the beginning is my lock screen image. And I've put it there not to remind me to 'live life to the full' before death (a meaningless phrase if ever there was one) but because (in the original Pali Texts, as opposed to later 'schools' as the Tibetan one) the Buddha says one should at least every day reflect that one may die any moment, that everything/-one that one is fond of will change and become otherwise (people will become sick, age, and die; property may diminish or be lost). By reflecting this way every day, says the Buddha, one may avoid the unnecessary suffering of grief. Such reflection also puts everything into its proper perspective, both with regard to one's own greed, hatred, conceit, etc. It is not in any way intended to make one increase one's sensual pleasures, on the contrary.
@Threetails Жыл бұрын
Watching this because I'm depressed but I'm at least motivated, and I'm trying to understand the visual language of the vanitas painting so I can use it in my own art projects. Sometimes, facing the worst of our limitations and frailties through art can be transformative and sustaining.
@DGordillo1233 жыл бұрын
Thank you for the initial warning. I've become a great fan of your channel and I want to watch every single thing you create, but given my suicidal problems I guess I'll skip this one for now. Take my like and my view anyways :)
@awildtomappeared59253 жыл бұрын
Just found this channel and I already know it's one of my favorites. The way the topics you choose and the way you approach them is dignified with a contextual nuance that understands reality and our culture as it is, not as a modern lens crudely depicts it. Your videos are humbling yet insightful in how they cover such great examples of how we really are standing on the shoulders of giants which is refreshing in modern times when the prevailing 'wisdom' is that tradition is "peer pressure from the dead". You do this so well that I do dare say it's rather based, not necessarily in the modern political sense, but in the sense that your videos take no note of modern delusions because they are so focused on the wisdom of the past- This video is a great example of this because just in the first minute you said "this video and this art that we are going to discuss is meant to remind us that when life is good then hard dark times are coming" -something that in the context of our history is common sense, but in today's time such wisdom is so disregarded that it's refreshing despite being more relevant than ever. As an artist that takes a liking to classical art and who wants to create art that isn't castrated by modern world views but instead shows people a better way, I never thought of using art to remind people in good times that bad times are coming, it's so simple and common sense once I hear it but outside of spaces like that which you have created such simple truths are hard to find today, good work.
@EmpireoftheMind3 жыл бұрын
Thank you so much!
@srenkierkegaard42673 жыл бұрын
New video on art? A suprise to be sure, but a welcome one!
@EmpireoftheMind3 жыл бұрын
I like to mix it up.
@EphReinhard3 жыл бұрын
Thanks for promising to list the paintings shown in this video. One of those one hour compilation classical music videos showing paintings is what reactivated my interests in classic paintings, as the source of the artwork was given in a comment by a member of the youtube community, and which subsecuantly, with the help of this video included, gave me more of a background on the use and display and history of said painintgs, such was the case of that household family paining that read "Learn To Die". I believe that the more we source, the better we share, the better do we spike an interest in the subjects and incite for further investigations and realizations.
@EmpireoftheMind3 жыл бұрын
You’re welcome! Hopefully I’ll be able to get the list up next week....
@isaiasabades11663 жыл бұрын
Damn i was early, great video man!
@lesliesylvan3 жыл бұрын
Superb . .. while it lasts ~~
@michael29743 жыл бұрын
I hope the rest of you masochists enjoyed this video too.
@marcelozerbini54113 жыл бұрын
As a non practicing Catholic, I must say: this video is just a regular Sunday morning in church kkkkkkkkk
@Ziad3195 Жыл бұрын
Watching this while your world is falling apart is actually good. According to Aristotle, tragedy in art is cathartic.
@matsalvatore9074 Жыл бұрын
I always been obsessed with drawing death. I use to get in trouble in school and have to talk to counselors cus since I was 6 I been drawing skulls. I honestly just think they look so cool n rather draw a skull than a face. It's also easier
@marcelozerbini54113 жыл бұрын
There's a great quote from a Brazilian poet, Adelia Prado: "cristãos sabem ao nascer: este vale é de lágrimas"
@HecmarJayam3 жыл бұрын
After the Lawrence video I haven't received any notifications for the new uploads. The bright side it's that after coming here on my own there's a bunch of new content for me to devour.
@TimothyRandall-cu2lh10 ай бұрын
Alas poor Yorick!
@voodoodolly2 жыл бұрын
Exellent explanation of vanitas! Ty
@TrueNeutralEvGenius Жыл бұрын
One of my favourite vanitas paintings is Hugo Simberg's "Garden of Death", which is pretty simple, but filled with powerful symbolism. As any vanitas should be, of course. But that care of death for a human soul is something particularly tender in vanitas genre, as I see it.
@epluribusunum146017 күн бұрын
Thank you so much for your profound insight. I’ve enjoyed vanitas art for a long time, but “that care of death for a human soul” is new to me and meaningful and I think a poetic element and I’m grateful to you for posting it. I’m looking forward to seeing that in these fascinating works. You opened my mind today.
@tiffany5333 Жыл бұрын
I love your videos. You deserve more views.
@theowlfromduolingo79822 жыл бұрын
9:07 I think it’s also special that he isn’t only pointing at the skull in his hand but rather poking it
@Amanita._.Verosa._.2 жыл бұрын
The trigger warning at the beginning is much appreciated 🙏 so many videos don't add that for others.
@eikskjold3 жыл бұрын
world accepting vs world rejecting cultures
@AlmostCoolGuys3 жыл бұрын
Coming in clutch for the mortality reminder
@_XY_2 жыл бұрын
👏👏
@chipperjones31123 жыл бұрын
My favorite video yet. I'm excited to watch the second one. I have a huge suggestion though. In a lot of your videos you include images and paintings. Could you please link to these somehow or write where you found them. Some of them I really like and want as a computer background for a bit :)
@chipperjones31123 жыл бұрын
I'd especially like the one you talked about during 7:30!
@EmpireoftheMind3 жыл бұрын
My goal is to list the names in the description when I get a chance. To add links as well would be a surprisingly major project, but I’ll try to do that in the future. I usually just rely on wikimedia commons as a source for most of the paintings. Many museums also offer high quality downloads of the pieces in their collections. Here’s a link to the Jan Steen which you were interested in: art.nelson-atkins.org/objects/5456/fantasy-interior-with-jan-steen-and-the-family-of-gerrit-sch (The link to the Wikimedia page didn’t work for some reason.)
@chipperjones31123 жыл бұрын
Awesome! No need to add hyperlinks then if that's too much. Even just names would be wonderful. Thanks so much for all the hard work you put in
@EmpireoftheMind3 жыл бұрын
@@chipperjones3112 You’re welcome!
@marcelozerbini54113 жыл бұрын
There's a very peculiar church in Rome called Santa Maria della Immaculata Concezione, that houses an ossuary. The goal of the ossuary Is to: "ricordare ai matti attaccati alla vita che anche loro devono morire"
@charlesq78663 жыл бұрын
What's the song playing at the end of the video, please? Great work by the way. So compelling.
@robertmicelli2946 Жыл бұрын
look man, we all deal with this life. if a person wants to watch it's not your fault if it depresses them. besides, this is STILL-LIFE!!! how bad can it be?
@captaindunsel69583 жыл бұрын
The young man could be playing Hamlet.
@EmpireoftheMind3 жыл бұрын
My understanding is that that used to be the consensus, but it has since been questioned on the grounds that there’s no evidence Shakespeare was yet performed in the Netherlands when the painting was made. Interesting rabbit hole to go down.
@AlbertAlbertB.3 жыл бұрын
Your voice sounds sometimes as the voice of Patrick Bateman, which I do not mean badly.
@EmpireoftheMind3 жыл бұрын
I won’t take it badly :)
@JAWSEOME163 жыл бұрын
Hey Empire, have you dived into the 40k realm? I recently watched your Wanderer video and was enthralled.
@EmpireoftheMind3 жыл бұрын
I can’t say that I yet have....
@JAWSEOME163 жыл бұрын
@@EmpireoftheMind after watching your video, I would love to see your take on that universe
@JAWSEOME163 жыл бұрын
@@EmpireoftheMind and thanks for taking time out of your day to respond, means alot
@EmpireoftheMind3 жыл бұрын
@@JAWSEOME16 You’re welcome! I wish I could respond more than I do. Now, I’ve never so much as set foot in the 40k universe. Where would be a good place to start?
@JAWSEOME163 жыл бұрын
@@EmpireoftheMind well, if you start with the Horus Heresy novels that will start you off with the immediate lore. However that's set in 30k timeline. The thing with it is, it's a tabletop, card games, video games, animated series, short stories, etc.
@TrueNeutralEvGenius Жыл бұрын
As I watch this video, the copy of vanitas with violin and glass ball is hanging over the monitor on the wall. It was a great moment, as you started to talk about it, and my glance started to jump from the video on the painting and back. Very nice moment.
@dominusalicorn36843 жыл бұрын
I have always wondered why so many Renaissance paintings had such morbid elements like skulls and rotting flesh, especially considering the Christian context of the culture these paintings came from. I can understand pagan depictions of death like this, since they don't have a hope of eternal life like Christians do, but why would Christian artists paint grim themes like this? I guess I can see "the fleetingness of life" as a reason for such art, as you compared the skull to the bubble and the flower, but I'm intrigued to see the rest of your series.
@EmpireoftheMind3 жыл бұрын
It’s strange indeed. I’m not sure if I’ll get into this next week, but there was also an emphasis on a kind of equality, stressing that in the end everyone comes to the same end (death) and under the skin, we are all very similar. Skulls and skeletons are a grim (and maybe even subversive) reminder of ultimate equality, despite differences in social status, beauty, talent, etc.
@marcelozerbini54113 жыл бұрын
"christian already know at birth: this valley is of tears" Adelia Prado I'm a Brazilian non practicing Catholic and I must say, to me Christianity IS a death cult. I see no surprise in this depictions
@dominusalicorn36843 жыл бұрын
@@marcelozerbini5411 I can't speak to Catholicism, myself being a protestant of sorts (depends on if you consider nondenominational to be protestant), but I really don't know where the idea that Christianity is a death cult came from, and it kind of irks me that people call it that, as they display an almost willful ignorance of what it is. A death cult is a religious group that glorifies or is obsessed with death. So like, on a purely surface level, if having a spiritual salvation from death counts as a death cult, that describes basically every religion ever including Christianity. The difference with Christianity is the means of attaining that salvation is through accepting a gracious payment of your debt rather than trying to work the debt off. And because this payment is sure, we aren't afraid of death, but we don't glorify or obsess over it.
@marcelozerbini54113 жыл бұрын
@@dominusalicorn3684 i hear you, btw maybe I sounded like a troll but that was not my intention. I actually mean in a positive way that Catholicism is to me a death cult. I'm not a Catholic because I don't believe in the metaphysics of it, but as I became an adult I realized I approach life as a Catholic. My ethics, my actions, etc And I really see Catholicism giving a huge attention to death. Every church has a crucifix that is a "suffer till death device" some Catholics carry said devices around their necks! Hell, even above my home's door there's a crucifix and i have this complex relation with the Church! All this gets to a point that I see a video like this with naturality, it's simply a very present part of the culture i was exposed to
@audreydimmel66742 жыл бұрын
@@marcelozerbini5411 As a Catholic myself, I was taught that the reason for the crucifix is not to glorify death, but to represent the love of God for us - willing to endure all of this pain in order to redeem us. I find it rather consoling for this reason. Then again, I totally get what you're saying here. Some Catholics do focus too heavily on death in a way they're not supposed to, typically because aren't really well-informed on what their religion actually teaches. If I may, I would like to apologize for any of them that may have damaged your worldview by emphasizing things they ought not to have. Catholicism is not supposed to be a death cult, and it makes me sad when I see Catholics overemphasize or glorify death this way. I'm not here to troll you or re-convert you or anything, don't get me wrong. I respect all of your thoughts on this and any related issues, and I'm wholeheartedly open to other thoughts or objections you have.
@artemismoonbow24753 жыл бұрын
HA, nothing illustrates the point about the loss of the symbolic in living space more than the middle-class suburban home with "eat, pray, love" signs. Eat, pray, love? Really, that is what we do here? Well, thank you for the reminder, that point was lost on me.
@_XY_2 жыл бұрын
Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas
@chrisrosenkreuz232 жыл бұрын
dat satanic butter
@miatacollector3 жыл бұрын
And isn’t it shameful illiteracy to think one knows what one doesn’t know?
@EmpireoftheMind3 жыл бұрын
Maybe more ‘ignorant’ than ‘illiterate’ perhaps ....?
@miatacollector3 жыл бұрын
@@EmpireoftheMind "ἀμαθία ἐστὶν" could be translated as ignorant in a broader sense. In modern greek it is translates as "είναι αμάθεια", but this also is not 1:1 as the context of the word has changed. So yes. Also the word "σοφός" still exists in modern Greek but we do not use it with the same meaning/context.
@EmpireoftheMind3 жыл бұрын
@@miatacollector Interesting. That makes more sense. Thanks for clarifying!
@javier64833 жыл бұрын
Laughs in Warhammer 40 k
@TrueNeutralEvGenius Жыл бұрын
Wow, I can hardly believe that you even have a bideo essay about favourit genre of art for me,which is vanital. Yes, I amd that crazy, who have death paintings and stulls all around me, death is all around me all the time, I was very close to death but not dead yet by strange chances and unluck (or lck, depends on how you see it). I think your prelude is funny tho, because I don't see how a video can get someone to a worse state, who was in hell and back again and again. Memento Mori.
@TrueNeutralEvGenius Жыл бұрын
And, c'mon, morbid? There is nothing more beautiful than Death and vanitas as a genre.