C'est la vie.... Vanités de Caravaggio à Damien Hirst

This afternoon I had the pleasure of visiting an interesting and yet fascinating exhibition... that of the Vanitas (or skulls, as they are known in Spanish), an exploration of the complex bonds between life and death, reflected in the many ways of Art: paint, sculpture, jewelry and photography.

At the Musée Maillol of the Rue Grenelle, since February 3rd, you are sure to find long waiting lines by its doors. I've got my tickets on the Internet (bought them at the FNAC site) so I was able to skip the lines but not the resentful glances in all those who were still waiting to get inside...

The whole point of the exhibition is to prove that death is one of our many lives... so all those skulls are there to symbolize the fragility of life itself, pushing us to live more intensely the present. 

It's moving and horrifying to see how, from the very first of the Vanitas (that of Jacob de Gheyn, circa 1603) to 2009's diamond-incrusted skull of Damien Hirst (worth 50 million dollars), including Caravaggio's "Saint Francis meditating" or the fabulous painting by Zurbarán, most of the artists have taken the matter seriously, in a way free of God and Religion...

Caravaggio's Saint Francis meditating

I was impressed by the Basquiat and Robert Mapplethorpe's self-picture, who already ill, photographed himself holding a cane with a skull in its handle.

A special paragraph must be dedicated to the jewelry collection by Codognato, a famous dinasty of Venetian jewelers who, since the 19th Century, have been including skulls in all their pieces: earrings, necklaces and, of course, rings.

I saw amazing paintings, as Paul Cézanne's " Nature morte, crâne et chandelier" or that of George de la Tour, so unique with his use of light...

Paul Cézanne's Nature morte, crâne et chandelier

I returned with my soul and spirit full of beauty and art. And I couldn't help but think of "Memento Mori," which in Latin means Remember you'll die...

But it was worth it and I was released from my childhood fear of skulls.

In fact, as I was leaving the museum, I bought a souvenir t-shirt with a print in front.

Can you guess what it had?

A skull, of course!