Editing Pride (section)

== Vanity ==
{{Main|Vanity}}
[[File:Jheronimus Bosch Table of the Mortal Sins (Superbia).jpg|thumb|left|Detail of "Pride" in ''[[The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things]]'' by [[Hieronymus Bosch]]]]
In conventional parlance, vanity is sometimes used in a positive sense to refer to a rational concern for one's appearance, attractiveness, and dress, and is thus not the same as pride. It can also refer to an excessive or irrational belief in or concern with one's abilities or attractiveness in the eyes of others and may, in that sense, be compared to pride. The term ''vanity'' originates from the Latin word {{lang|la|[[vanitas]]}} meaning ''emptiness'', ''untruthfulness'', ''futility'', ''foolishness'', and ''empty pride''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wordz.pl?keyword=vanitas|title=vanitas|website=William Whitaker's Words|access-date=26 June 2008|archive-date=9 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120509221700/http://www.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wordz.pl?keyword=vanitas|url-status=dead}}</ref> Here, ''empty pride'' means a fake pride, in the sense of vainglory, unjustified by one's own achievements and actions, but sought by pretense and appeals to superficial characteristics.

[[File:Alexandre_Cabanel_-_Fallen_Angel.jpg|thumb|"The Fallen Angel" (1847) by [[Alexandre Cabanel]], depicting [[Lucifer]]]]
[[File:The Father and Mother.jpg|alt=|thumb|''The Father and Mother'' by [[Boardman Robinson]] depicting [[War]] as the [[offspring]] of [[Greed]] and Pride]]

[[File:Jacques Callot, Pride (Vanity), probably after 1621, NGA 5360.jpg|thumb|left|Jacques Callot, ''Pride (Vanity)'', probably after 1621]]
In many religions, vanity is considered a form of self-[[idolatry]], in which one rejects God for the sake of one's own [[image]], and thereby becomes divorced from the [[Divine grace|grace]]s of [[God]]. The stories of [[Lucifer]] and [[Narcissus (mythology)|Narcissus]] (who gave us the term [[narcissism]]), and others, attend to a pernicious aspect of vanity.

In Western art, vanity was often symbolized by a [[peacock]], and in [[Bible|Biblical]] terms, by the [[Whore of Babylon]]. During the [[Renaissance]], it was invariably represented as a naked [[woman]], sometimes seated or reclining on a couch. She attends to her hair with a comb and mirror. The mirror is sometimes held by a [[demon]] or a [[putto]]. Other symbols include jewels, gold coins, a purse, and [[Personifications of death|Death himself]].

[[File:Allisvanity.jpg|thumb|upright|"All Is Vanity" by [[C. Allan Gilbert]], evoking the inevitable decay of life and beauty toward death]]Often depicted is an inscription on a scroll that reads {{lang|la|Omnia Vanitas}} ("All is Vanity"), a quote from the Latin translation of the Book of [[Ecclesiastes]].<ref>{{cite book|first=James|last=Hall|title=Dictionary of Subjects & Symbols in Art|location=New York|publisher=Harper & Row|year=1974|page=318}}</ref> Although that phrase—itself depicted in a type of still life called [[vanitas]]—originally referred not to an obsession with one's appearance, but to the ultimate fruitlessness of man's efforts in this world, the phrase summarizes the complete preoccupation of the subject of the picture. "The artist invites us to pay [[lip service (disambiguation)|lip-service]] to condemning her", writes [[Edwin Mullins]], "while offering us full permission to drool over her. She admires herself in the glass, while we treat the picture that purports to incriminate her as another kind of glass—a window—through which we peer and secretly desire her."<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Edwin Mullins|first=Edwin|last=Mullins|title=The Painted Witch: How Western Artists Have Viewed the Sexuality of Women|location=New York|publisher=Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc.|year=1985|pages=62–63}}</ref> The theme of the recumbent woman often merged artistically with the non-allegorical one of a reclining [[Venus (god)|Venus]].

In his table of the [[seven deadly sins]], [[Hieronymus Bosch]] depicts a [[bourgeoisie|bourgeois]] woman admiring herself in a mirror held up by a devil. Behind her is an open jewelry box. A painting attributed to [[Nicolas Tournier]], which hangs in the [[Ashmolean Museum]], is ''An Allegory of Justice and Vanity''. A young woman holds a [[Beam balance|balance]], symbolizing [[justice]]; she does not look at the mirror or the [[human skull|skull]] on the table before her. [[Johannes Vermeer|Vermeer's]] famous painting ''[[Girl with a Pearl Earring]]'' is sometimes believed to depict the sin of vanity, as the young girl has adorned herself before a glass without further positive allegorical attributes.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://essentialvermeer.20m.com/cat_about/necklace.htm |first1=Arthur|last1=Wheelock|first2=John|last2=Nash|title=Information about Johannes Vermeer's 'Woman with a Pearl Necklace' |access-date=21 June 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011175732/http://essentialvermeer.20m.com/cat_about/necklace.htm |archive-date=11 October 2007 }}</ref> ''All is Vanity'', by [[Charles Allan Gilbert]] (1873–1929), carries on this theme. An [[optical illusion]], the painting depicts what appears to be a large grinning skull. Upon closer examination, it reveals itself to be a young woman gazing at her reflection in the mirror of her [[vanity table]]. Such artistic works served to warn viewers of the ephemeral nature of youthful beauty, as well as the brevity of human life and the inevitability of [[death]].
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