Vanitas and trompe-l’œil

Abstract

This essay examines the complex ways in which early Netherlandish artists used illusionistic devices including trompe l’œil as a means of forcing viewers to confront their own mortality. Her analysis unpacks deep associations between the representation of memento mori motifs and the viewer’s response, focusing on how such paintings paradoxically appeal to the notoriously fallible sense of sight in order to provoke deeper reflection on, and preparation for, the inevitable end of life. The relationship of trompe l’œil to the memento mori rests, in this discussion, on how such devices call attention to the ways in which painting itself invites responses that are both sensual and cognitive. The deception of the eye leads to a higher cognitive state of questioning earthly perception as well as the unfathomable nature of death. The frequent use of folding panels served to ‘enfold’ the viewer actively in the visual and conative dynamics of the painted representation.