This day is also known as "Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed", and "Day of the Dead". In USA is this day traditionally celebrated on the 31 October, or 1 November. In Sweden the tradition is a little different. It is placed on the Saturday in the time period 31 October to 6 November is placed "All Saint's day", or in some English speaking countries "Halloween". This is a feast day for all saints, who are already saved from purgatory. On the following Sunday, the next day, is "All soul's day", or as before mentioned "The day of the Dead". This is a day commemorating those relatives who has passed away. It is also the day commemorated in the following still life photograph.
The properties have been selected in the style of Memento Mori, a Latin phrase meaning "Remember death" or "Remember that you are deadly as well". Here the trope is used with the figurative meaning of "Remember those already dead, those who passed before us"
Memento More is an old trope in art and music, that has been documented back in time to at least the black death, which ravaged Europe in the time period of 1348-1360. In some accounts of the Roman Triumph a companion or public slave would stand behind the triumphant general during the procession, and remind him from time to time of hes own mortality. A version of the warning is often rendered into English as "Remember Ceasar, thou art mortal", so Memento Mori might go back two thousand years in art as well.
There are several subtopics within Memento Mori: Dance Macabre, Ubi Sunt, Vanitas, and Et in Arcadia ego. The genre is supposed to remind people of their own mortality. A very common motif is a skull, often accompanied by one or more bones. But other motif's such as: a coffin, hourglass, and wilting flowers signified the impermanence of human life. A vanitas is a symbolic work of art showing the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death.
A gentle reminder is Ubi Sunt, a rhetorical question in Latin taken from the expression "Ubi sunt qui ante nos fuerunt?". Litteraly this is "Where are those who were before us?" This is a theme often used in the form of poetry or litterature. In visual art it seems that the alternative phrasing "Et in Arcadia ego" is more common.
The Dace Macabre is more brutal as a reminder. It consists of the dead, or a personification of death, summoning representatives from all walks of life to dance along to the grave. Typically with a Pope, Emperor, King, child, and laborer. The effect was both frivolous and terrifying, beseeching the audience to react emotionally. Camille Saint-Saëns composed a symphonic poem with this theme in 1874, which has entered into the classical music.
An even more brutal reminder is Death personified with a scythe as the Grim Reaper, a direct evocation of this trope.