Vanitas, Vanitas, Omnis Vanitas - a photo on Flickriver

The third of a series of images, originally inspired by Paul Cowie, of "Re-Mixed" or collaged Classical paintings.

With this piece ( "Vanity, Vanity, All is Vanity" ) I brought two ostensibly incongruent images together to comment on the nature of our denial of death and our ultimate submission to it. On the left the Pharaoh and his Queen are in procession with a symbolic boat that will take them through the sky to Heaven and into immortal life.

On the right, The dead Icarus, having flown too close to this "Heaven" ( the sun has always been acquainted with Heaven or the Deity itself ) is mourned. In this way the denial of our mortality is seen as what was known in Latin as Vanitas, or, Vanity. This isn't what we commonly use the word for now, which usually implies a kind of narcissistic conceit. To the Romans it meant something much deeper. It is the tragic way that we fool ourselves about our own importance, or in this case, mortality. This is the theme of my image.

Two classical paintings are mixed with two of my older, photo manipulations of sewer grates. While not to be taken literally, the grates are used here for their hard metallic forcefulness, looking almost like prison bars, suggesting the "prison" of mortality. Some of these are made very translucent, hinting that the prison might be transcended. IS death final ? We don't know, we really don't. But it is Vanitas to think that THIS form of ourselves can live forever.

Sourced from a fee, public domain, wallpaper website.

wallpaper-gallery.net/single/classic-paintings-wallpapers...
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Music Link: "The Funeral of Amenhotep III" - Philip Glass from his opera "Akhnaten" ( sic ). A live performance done in a very ritualistic style to evoke an imaginary scene of the funeral of a Pharaoh, but also to convey the very strict, almost immovable rigidity and formalism of the culture of Ancient Egypt. Amenhotep's son, Akhenaten, rebelled against this tight, constrained formalism, literally overturning thousands of years of unchanged Eygptian tradition in his relatively few years as Pharaoh.

As is well known, the Ancient Egyptians believed in the immortality of the properly prepared body being ritualistically sent off to the Heaven of Ra in the detailed prescribed fashion. This opening scene is meant to contrast the old militaristic order of Amenhotep III to the lyrical "Amarna Period" which Akhenaten ( Amenhotep IV ) and his wife, Nefertiti brought in and established.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XENvMGyy4J8
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© This Collage - Richard S Warner ( Visionheart ) - 2019. All Rights Reserved. This collaged image is not for use in any form without explicit, express, written permission. The two classical images used are public domain and no monies will be made from this piece.
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Taken on: March 30, 2019

Tags:

Veils & Screens

Layers

Panels

Translucencies

Photo Manipulation

Text

Text as Line

Text as Drawing

Egypt

Ancient Egypt

Pharaohs

Pharoah's Procession

Greece

Ancient Greece

Greek Mythology

Icarus

Classics

Classical Imagery

Re-Mixed Classical Imagery « less

Sets appears in: • 'Re-Mixed' Classics • Veils & Screens more » • Photo-Manipulation « less

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Camera: Apple iPhone 6, f/2.2, 1/1014 sec, 4.2mm, ISO 125 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Apple iPhone 6
Lens:	iPhone 6 back camera 4.15mm f/2.2
Aperture:	f/2.2
Exposure Time:	0.001 sec (1/1014)
Focal Length:	4.2mm
ISO:	125
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Photos 1.0.1
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