Abstract
Vanity, a pictorial genre intimately associated with the 17th century, appears in veiled fashion in I9th century literature, which makes ample use of the pictorial mode. This genre, which invests its message with the symbolism of the objects it chooses to compose and display, seizes upon the use of literary text as a singular opportunity. Through writing, the evocation of the pictorial work takes over and establishes a discourse about the futility of human endeavour, fixing the text in a certain relation to transcendental matters. However, as the century advances, the symbolic weight of the Vanities diminishes; objects begin to appear only in their material aspect, devoid of the metaphysical characteristics with which the classical period had invested them.
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