The Memento Mori: Art & The Macabre

Happy Halloween fellow art enthusiasts! Art can exist in many forms, this includes more macabre and scary subjects. To celebrate the macabre in art, I would like to talk about the memento mori.

Memento mori, or "remember to die" in Latin is a symbol and trope in the arts and literature that acts as a reminder to us of the inevitability of death (Memento Mori). The concept appears in funerary art and architecture from the medieval period to present day. In artworks, the common motifs for Memento Moris are skulls, bones, wilting flowers, coffins and also hourglasses (Wikipedia contributors, 2025).

Memento mori. Gravestone inscription. Edinburgh. St. Cuthbert's Churchyard. 1746.

Memento mori can be found all the way back into classical antiquity. Examples include ancient philosopher Democritus frequenting tombs and being in solitude. Another prominent example is found within the Stoic Epictetus's teachings. Epictetus taught his followers that anytime they kiss their family members or friends goodbye that they should reflect on their mortality and cherish the interactions they have with said people in their lives because we all are mortal and the inevitability of death means that it could be the last interaction we have with them (Wikipedia contributors, 2025).

Harmeen Steenwijck. Still Life: An Allegory of the Vanities of Human Life. 1640, Oil on Panel.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, jewelry and other fine art pieces like mourning rings, lockets, and brooches were popular and had names of the deceased and messages to them on them. These also depicted various motifs like skulls, bones and coffins in them as well. Around the same time period, we see the Vanitas, a genre of Memento mori (Wikipedia contributors, 2025). The term "vanitas" originates from Latin. Depending on the context, it can translate to "vanity" or "pointlessness". Vanitas paintings often depict the shortness of life, the inevitability of death, and also the pointlessness of ambition and worldly pleasures through still life imagery (Wikimedia Foundation, 2025c).

José Guadalupe Posada. La Calavera Catrina. Lithograph. 1910.

A lot of memento mori art is also associated with the holiday Day of the Dead, or Día de los Muertos in Mexico. People celebrate their deceased relatives and friends and pay respects to them.

The dates Day of the Dead is celebrated depend on the locality, but it is usually celebrated at the end of October to early November. Symbols for the holiday include calaveras (skulls) and also calaveras literarias (Wikimedia Foundation, 2025b). Calaveras literarias are poems written in short verses akin to mock epitaphs that tell lighthearted anecdotes of loved ones and friends (Chávez, 2018). Art associated with this holiday include skull shaped candy also La Calavera Catrina, created by Mexican lithographer José Guadalupe Posada (Wikipedia contributors, 2025).

Dead Man's Party. Oingo Boingo. Studio album. 1985.

One personal favorite memento mori of mine that is worth mentioning is the song No One Lives Forever from the album Dead Man's Party by the ska and new wave band Oingo Boingo. Dead Man's Party's album cover also pays homage to Day of the Dead (Wikimedia Foundation,2025a). No One Lives Forever's lyrics talk about the shortness of life and the inevitability of death with an upbeat ska tune. These themes are present in many memento mori works of art (Oingo Boingo. 1986/1986/2021).

Memento moris are an iconic symbol in not only the arts, literature and architecture, but also culturally. While we enjoy life, Memento moris serve as a reminder that we should cherish our lives and loved ones because death is inevitable. While death is seen as something we should be frightened of, Memento moris bring this subject to light. This form of art about death and dying remains immortal within the arts and cultures of the world.

Sources:

Chávez, X. (2018, October 23). Literary Calaveras. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/smithsonian-latino-center/2018/10/23/literary-calaveras/

Memento Mori. memento mori: definition of memento mori in Oxford dictionary (British & World English). (n.d.). https://web.archive.org/web/20130629014511/http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/memento-mori

Captured via web archive on June 29, 2013. Publishing date for source is unknown.

Oingo Boingo. (2021), Dead Man's Party (Remastered) [Album]. UMG Recordings, Inc. (Original work published 1985/1986)

Wikipedia contributors. (2025, July 12). Memento mori. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18:48, October 30, 2025, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Memento_mori&oldid=1300186477

Wikimedia Foundation. (2025a, October 5). Dead Man’s Party (album). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Man%27s_Party_(album)

Wikimedia Foundation. (2025b, October 25). Day of the dead. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Dead

Wikimedia Foundation. (2025c, October 5). Vanitas. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanitas