Cabinet of curiosities & Inspirations since 2009

Cabinet of curiosities & Inspirations since 2009
*I Don’t Own the Rights to These Photos*

20 oct. 2008

ALL IS VANITY...

I feel lazy this week.
Sorry for the lack of posts.
But i will soon recover from 
my melancoly blog illness.

VANITAS, VANITATUM, OMNIA VANITAS
“Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.” - Ecclesiastes 1:2. 

The fear of death has been a prevalent theme in art through the centuries.
Paintings executed in the vanitas style are meant as a reminder of the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death, encouraging a sombre world view.


In the arts, vanitas is a type of symbolic still life painting commonly executed by Northern European painters in Flanders and Netherland  in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 
The term vanitas itself refers to time

All is Vanity

The word is latin, meaning "emptyness" and loosely translated corresponds to the meaninglessness
of earthly life and the transient nature of vanity.


Common vanitas symbols include skulls, which are a reminder of the certainty of death; rotten fruit, 
which symbolizes decay like aging bubbles, which symbolize the brevity of life and suddenness of death;
smoke, watches, and hourglasses, which symbolize the brevity of life; and musical instruments, 
which symbolize brevity and the ephemeral nature of life.



Wearing a vanitas ring can be a symbol meaning: " Remember you are only mortal". 
Of course, fashion use this symbol, a lot of skull on Tee-shirts and accessoiries,
Skulls aren't only related to Rock'n roll trend.

 For the love of god - Damien Hirst

The most secret jeweller in the world Codognato is making the most remarquable vanitas ring in the world,
but you have to make the trip to this Venice institution.
Codognato family-owned jewelry business in Venice.  
They still make some of the most over-the-top Vanitas jewellery since 1866.
 Serge Diaghilev, Edouard Manet, Auguste Renoir, Coco Chanel, Paul Morand, Serge Lifar, Misia Sert, Jean Cocteau, Orson Welles, La Duchesse de Windsor, Visconti, Jackie Kennedy, Grace Kelly, Maria Félix, Richard Burton, 
Andy Warhol have all acquired custom items from the Codognato family.


If you want to learn more about Codognato: the cult of Codognato
Also a book by Pierre Hebey: Codognato at Assouline

+Gioielleria Attilio Codognato, 1295 San Marco, Venice +39 041 522 5042

 For the love of god, the Damien Hirst human skull encrusted with diamonds was sold $100 million.

Isn't this The true Symbol of cynism and vanity ?