Physical beauty is a transient, and often highly valued feature of society. Allegory of Vanity uses connotated imagery to symbolize vanity and the transience of beauty. Skulls scattered among the painting symbolize the inevitable event of death. By specifically including skulls, the carriers of the face, it represents the loss of physical beauty and the transience of physicality as a whole. The large, extravagant clock surrounded by riches is another element of transience as worldly riches will not follow you past death, though some hold them in highest regard. Money is transient much like physical beauty as both, though they both may accumulate popularity, mean little in your last days. Beauty is an extensively transient thing, and holds true…
