Whether through painting, drawing, sculpture, video, or other media, contemporary artists have drawn on the centuries - old tradition to create works
of conceptual vivacity, beauty, and emotional poignancy in the present time.Structured according to the classical categories
of the still - life tradition — Flora, Food, House and Home, Fauna, and Death, each
chapter in Michael Petry's book explores how the timeless
symbolic resonance
of the memento mori, has been rediscovered for a
new millennium.