vanitas Hear it!

vanitas definition

vani·tas (van′i täs′)

noun

  1. vanity; futility
  2. a work of art containing symbols of mortality or the impermanence of material things; esp., a 17th-cent. Dutch painting of this kind

Etymology: L

adjective

of or relating to this genre the vanitas tradition

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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