Memento is the 2nd person singular active future imperative of meminī, 'to remember, to bear in mind', usually serving as a warning: 'remember!' Morī is the present infinitive of the deponent verb morior 'to die'. It is reconstructed as ideally pronounced as something like if spoken by an ancient Roman around the beginning of the AD era. In English, the phrase is typically pronounced / m ə ˈ m ɛ n t oʊ ˈ m ɔːr i/, mə- MEN-toh MOR-ee. The Danse Macabre and Death personified with a scythe as the Grim Reaper are even more direct evocations of the trope. Often these function within a work whose main subject is something else, such as a portrait, but the vanitas is an artistic genre where the theme of death is the main subject. Often this alone is enough to evoke the trope, but other motifs such as a coffin, hourglass and wilting flowers signify the impermanence of human mundane life. The most common motif is a skull, often accompanied by one or more bones. The concept has its roots in the philosophers of classical antiquity and Christianity, and appeared in funerary art and architecture from the medieval period onwards. Memento mori ( Latin for 'remember that you die' ) is an artistic or symbolic trope acting as a reminder of the inevitability of death. The bones rest on a brick, a symbol of his former industry and achievement. 1452) show the skull of the patron displayed on the inner panels. The outer panels of Rogier van der Weyden's Braque Triptych ( c. For other uses, see Memento mori (disambiguation). Memento Mori Fede Ring c.1526-1575.This article is about the philosophical reminder of death's inevitability. The tradition flourished in the eighteenth century but the name of the individual being memorialized became more prominent, the mourning motifs became somewhat less gruesome and the use of intricate hairwork and elaborate allegories were de rigueur. In the mid-seventeenth century, the theme merged with memorial jewelry and it became popular to have the hair of the departed person, along with relevant dates and initials worked into the piece alongside the skull, coffin symbols and message. Often these were just plain bands engraved with a sentiment referencing the departed (sometimes specifically outlined in the will.) Money was left for the purpose of creating the rings along with a specified list of mourners.

The sixteenth century saw an increase in bequests for mourning rings.

Rings were the most common form of memento mori jewels although they could also take the form of lockets, pendants, and brooches. Composed in Latin, French or English they were either engraved or enameled on the outside of a jewel or secretly on the inside, viewable only by the intended recipient. An important part of the memento mori jewel was the use of text to express thoughts of death, mortality, remembrance, and religion. Skulls, skeletons, and coffins, often worked in gold and enamel were the predominant motifs vividly illustrating the underlying sentiment of pending mortality. Translation from Latin, “remember you must die,” is very clearly indicative of the objective of the theme. Memento mori jewelry is the name given to sixteenth through eighteenth-century jewelry that was created as a reminder of the inevitability of death and the need to live piously. Sixteenth Century French Memento Mori Pendant.

Memento mori chain