Vanitas Multimedia Performance
Vanitas: A Latin word meaning vanity, defined as a Dutch style of still-life painting featuring objects intended to make the viewer contemplate mortality.
On September 26, I attended the Vanitas Multimedia Performance given by multiple faculty members that was held in Tyler-Tallman Hall. Bonnie Noble, an art historian, joined forces with musicians Cynthia Lawing, Dylan Savage, and David Russell. With a combination of lecture, musical performances, and a local artist’s painting showcase, the night was spent in appreciation of the arts.
First was a piece entitled Pavane pour une infante défunte (composed for the piano by Maurice Ravel). It was described as a stately court dance, an invocation of the princess. A light but commanding piece, it provided an introduction to the Dutch tradition of painting known as “Vanitas”. Beginning in the late 17th century, this style features certain symbols such as bouquets of flowers, seashells, fruits of all kinds, candles, and even skulls (among many others). The backgrounds are typically dark in color, the light focused on the elements of the foreground: vibrant yellows, deep blues, rich reds, verdant greens, all placed with defined brush strokes. This genre of painting is likened to “forevering impermanence”. It is meant to remind the viewer of their own mortality, of the ephemeral nature of beauty. The lecturer further explained that as humans, we form love affairs with things that often don’t last; this attachment causes our own suffering, and yet, it doesn’t stop us.
Next were more musical performances from the piano and violin. A common theme of the pieces was a melody from a Gregorian Chant known as the “Dies Irae”, Latin for “the day of anger/wrath”. Meant to be a mass for the dead, it has a haunting cadence–one that is still used in contemporary compositions (“Into the Unknown” from Frozen 2 being one of the most recognizable). The pieces played that night included Intermezzo in E-flat Minor, Op. 118, No. 6 by Johannes Brahms, Milonga en re by Astor Piazzolla, Playera by Pablo de Sarasate, and Valses nobles et sentimentales, Op. 61, No. 2 by Ravel (Italics according to the program). As the musicians performed the final piece, a slideshow of Depression-era dance marathons were shown. Frenzied contestants swing and shag dancing until their shoes had holes and they collapsed in their petticoats; beautiful, unattainable, always moving until suddenly they didn’t anymore.
Finally was a presentation by Andrew Leventis, a professor of painting at UNC Charlotte, and his modern spin on the Vanitas practice. He began during the COVID-19 quarantine creating still-lives of the interiors of refrigerators. Starting with his own, they ranged from haphazard and fully stocked to curated interiors. He took inspiration from local restaurants and acquaintances to create this collection. My favorite piece featured a vase of varied flowers inside what appeared to be a mini fridge with a small blue butterfly perched in the freezer section.
The goals of this event were to educate and bring the tradition into the modern age set to musical pieces that sparked the emotions that the original paintings meant to evoke. It seemed a success to me, but there were many involved: Noble and her presentation, the musicians and their satisfaction of their performances, Leventis and the audience he hoped to reach.
Personally, I have always had a connection to the bright florals on the muddy, dim backgrounds. To me it symbolized the persistence of the beautiful, of the good in these dark and dire circumstances. However, after this night I find myself aligning with Vanitas’s intended purpose. Beautiful things don’t last–but that is essential for their beauty. Value is assigned to that which is rarified. A flower wilts, a fruit will rot, but the viewer will remember how it used to look, how it used to taste; the emotions linger long after the object.
