Show a goth a vanitas motif and he will love it. Otherwise he is not a Goth! This or something similar can be used to describe the love of the black scene for the morbid and the transient. Vanitas motifs represent death and the transience of everything earthly. The vanitas still life was in great demand, especially in the Baroque period. Especially expensive jewellery and luxury goods were shown in connection with mortality. The meaning is obvious. No matter how beautiful or rich you are, how educated or powerful, you cannot take any of it with you into death.
In this type of art, splendid things from everyday life, art and science or from the world of pleasure are shown as combinations on one side. These are peppered with vanitas motifs, for example skulls, empty or broken glasses, extinguished candles, leaking hourglasses, withered flowers or even "pests" such as rats or mice. Many other symbols stand, for example, for failed life goals (playing cards and dice) or for transient relationships (letters) and much more. Vanitas motifs can be found on every corner in the goth scene, often on posters, paintings, T-shirts, tattoos or art prints. Many representatives of the black scene also like to photograph "Rotten Places" themselves. Corresponding exhibitions can often be seen at Gothic festivals.
