Noun
vanitas (plural vanitases)
(painting) A type of still life painting, symbolic of mortality, characteristic of Dutch painting of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Ah! Vanitas Vanitatum! Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?-Come, children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out. William Makepeace Thackeray