Memento mori, 18th century

Memento mori, 18th century.
Carved limestone.
Measurements: 38 x 39 x 11,5 cm.

This work is reduced to the representation of an hourglass and wings. Few elements that create a set of great visual impact and evocation, since the author not only alludes to the concept of "tempus fugit", but also to that of history and in turn to the idea of memory. This sculpture is inscribed within the genre of vanities, which had so much relevance. To capture the transience of life was one of the themes that most concerned baroque artists. Vanities denounce the relativity of knowledge and the vanity of the human race subject to the passage of time, to death. Its title and conception are related to a passage from Ecclesiastes: "vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas" ("vanity of vanities, all is vanity").