Vanity

[franceslievens]

Wandering through the Louvre frenchani pointed out to me that skulls on paintings usualy are part of an allegory depicting vanity. In French you can even talk about des vanités. When leafing through a little book entitled Tout un Louvre it occurred to me that we might have contemplated the idea of a contemporary vanity. In Tout un Louvre you actualy see one as they juxtapose Georges de La Tour's Mary Magdalene with contemporary artwork.



It seems the familiar skull only needs a mobile phone to revive an age old allegory.

Comments

[lijability.livejournal.com]

I see the artwork on the right and all I can think about are the reports about brain tumors (cancer) and cell phones.

[frances-lievens.livejournal.com]

I don't know if that was the meaning behind that piece! In the little book it only gives the title and the technique used. It doesn't say who made the actual contemporary paintings and installations, so I'm guessing the authors of the book worked together on them. It might actualy refer to what you say it does. Vanity will eventualy get you killed!