Vanity of Vanities picture van Streck description. Admiring vanity

Dutch still life is an admiration of the material world. Even when the canvas depicts not luxurious food and cups of wine, but symbols of death and the frailty of earthly life

After long wars with the Spanish Habsburgs, the Northern Netherlands gained independence at the end of the 16th century (de jure it was secured only in 1648). The first republic with a democratic constitution and victorious Calvinism was formed in Europe. This political revolution caused equally dramatic changes in the visual arts. Calvinism condemned all pomp and prohibited images in churches. If earlier artists were mainly engaged in decorating temples and palace interiors, now they have lost these orders. But a massive demand arose for easel paintings - paintings of a relatively small format, which in burgher and even peasant houses served both as decoration and as a kind of storyteller, just like we have a television now. The painting boom gave birth to a whole galaxy of outstanding artists: in small Holland (the main province of the Northern Netherlands), two universal geniuses were working simultaneously - Jan Vermeer and Harmens Rembrandt, the amazing portrait painter Frans Hals, and in general there were more than two thousand painters.

Landscapes, scenes of private life, and still life, which in Holland were called stilleven - “quiet, frozen life,” became popular. The still lifes of the “little Dutchmen” (as Dutch artists who worked in these “small” genres were later called) were distinguished by an amazing thematic diversity: breakfasts (a table with food and wines), flowers - with insects, snails and lizards (depicted with an accuracy worthy botanical-zoological atlas), attributes of a smoker - pipes, snuff boxes, etc., fish still lifes, hunting ones - with weapons and trophies, scientists - with books, globes, musical instruments... A special category were allegorical still lifes vanitas - “vanity of vanities”, speaking about the transience of life, the vanity of all things and the inevitability of death. The title refers to the biblical verse Vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas (“Vanity of vanities, said Ecclesiastes, vanity of vanities, all is vanity!”, Eccl. 1:2). The genre partly traces its origins to images of skulls and flowers, which Renaissance artists sometimes painted on the backs of portraits. These signs, apparently, served as a kind of amulets for the living model depicted in the portrait (for the superstitious-magical consciousness, a portrait is a dangerous thing, since it steals the soul of the person depicted in it). Vanitas still lifes appeared around 1550. The earliest of them are almost monochrome, strict and gloomy, usually with a skull depicted frontally (most often in a niche with a candle). In the 17th century, their composition, in accordance with the tastes of the era, became predominantly baroque, with sharp color contrasts, a heap of objects - attributes of luxury, vanity and vanity, as in Jurian van Streck's painting Vanitas vanitatis, presented in the room. These still lifes became fashionable in the 1620s. The city of learning Leiden was especially famous for them. Their plot basis goes back to medieval allegorical paintings: “triumphs” and “Dances of Death” - in them Death leads people of all ages, ranks and classes into another world in a round dance. Only it’s not people who “dance” on vanitas, but things. In a word, for those who like to look for hidden codes in a picture, any Dutch still life is a godsend: even the smoke from a pipe is not just smoke, but a symbol of the ephemeral nature of our hopes.

	Book- Sophocles' tragedy "Electra" - in this case the symbol is ambiguous. By placing it in the composition, the artist reminds of the inevitability of retribution for every crime, not on earth, but in heaven, since it is precisely this thought that permeates the tragedy. The antique motif in such still lifes often symbolized the continuity of art. On the title page is the name of the translator, the famous Dutch poet Joost van den Vondel, whose works on ancient and biblical subjects were so topical that he was even persecuted. It is unlikely that the artist placed Vondel by accident - it is possible that, speaking about the vanity of the world, he decided to mention the vanity of power.
	Sword and helmet- an emblem of transitory military glory.
	White with red plume- the compositional center of the picture. Feathers always mean vanity and vanity. The painting is dated based on the plumed helmet. Lodewijk van der Helst depicted him wearing such a helmet in his posthumous portrait of Admiral Stirlingwerf in 1670. The admiral's helmet is present in several more still lifes by van Streck.
	Portrait of Sanguine. Unlike oil, sanguine is very poorly preserved, as is paper in contrast to canvas. This sheet speaks of the futility of the artist’s efforts; the frayed and torn edges are intended to reinforce this idea.
	Golden fringe- the vanity of luxury. Van Streck painted this fringe again in a still life with oranges and lemon, which is also exhibited at the Pushkin Museum.
	Scull- in ancient culture an attribute of Kronos (Saturn), that is, a symbol of time. The Wheel of Fortune was also depicted with a skull. For Christians, it is a sign of worldly vanity, mental contemplation of death, an attribute of a hermit’s life. Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Jerome, Mary Magdalene, and the Apostle Paul were depicted with him. The skull is also a symbol of the eternal life of Christ, crucified on Golgotha, where, according to legend, the skull of Adam was buried. Ear, entwining the skull, is a symbol of the immortality of the soul (“I am the bread of life” - John 6:48), hope for eternal life.
	Stack of old papers- vanity of knowledge.
	Powder horn on a chain- a very characteristic subject for Dutch still life. Here it, apparently, should be interpreted as something that brings death, in contrast to the cornucopia.

The fate of the canvas

The painting was painted in oil on a fairly large format canvas (98 × 84 cm) around 1670. Prince Dmitry Golitsyn acquired it in 1766 for the Hermitage at an auction where the collection of the French artist Jacques Aved was being sold. In 1854, Nicholas I ordered the sale of it along with many other paintings to replenish the treasury depleted by military expenses. Since 1928, the still life has been kept in the State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow.

Vanitas. (Latin vanitas, lit. - “vanity, vanity”) - a genre of painting of the Baroque era, allegorical still life, the compositional center of which is traditionally the human skull. Such paintings, an early stage in the development of still life, were intended to serve as reminders of the transience of life, the futility of pleasure and the inevitability of death. It became most widespread in Flanders and the Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries; individual examples of the genre are found in France and Spain. The term comes from the Bible verse (Eccl. 1:2) Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas (“ Vanity of vanities, said Ecclesiastes, vanity of vanities, all is vanity!»).

Attributes The symbols found on the canvases were intended to remind us of the frailty of human life and the transience of pleasures and achievements:

The skull is a reminder of the inevitability of death. Just as a portrait is only a reflection of a once living person, so a skull is only the shape of a once living head. The viewer should perceive it as a “reflection”; it most clearly symbolizes the frailty of human life.
Jan Gossaert, Skull. tree. 1517. Louvre, Paris

Bartholomaus Bruyn the Elder (1493-1555) Skull in a niche, 1530/45.
Hermitage, St. Petersburg

Paul Cezanne: Pyramid of Skulls. 1898-1900.

Paul Cézanne - Still life with a skull (1895-1900)
Rotten fruits are a symbol of aging. Ripe fruits symbolize fertility, abundance, figuratively wealth and prosperity. A number of fruits have their own meaning: the Fall is represented by pears, tomatoes, citrus fruits, grapes, peaches and cherries, and of course, the apple. Figs, plums, cherries, apples or peaches have erotic overtones
Giovanna Garzoni (1600-1670) Dish with jasmine, plum nuts
Giovanna Garzoni (1600-1670) Still life with apples and lizards
Giovanna Garzoni (1600-1670) Chinese bowl with figs, cherries and goldfinches
Flowers (fading); rose is the flower of Venus, a symbol of love and sex, which is vain, like everything inherent in man. Poppy is a sedative from which opium is made, a symbol of the mortal sin of laziness. The tulip is a collectible in the 17th century Netherlands, a symbol of thoughtlessness, irresponsibility and unreasonable handling of God-given wealth.
Abraham Mignon (1640-1679), Nature as a Symbol of Vanitas, 1665-79
Hesse National Museum, Darmstadt, Germany

Adrian van Utrecht: Vanitas - Still Life with Bouquet and Skull (1642)
Sprouts of grain, branches of ivy or laurel (rarely) are a symbol of rebirth and the cycle of life.

ROESTRAETEN, Peter Gerritsz. Vanitas Still Life - XVII century
Sea shells, sometimes live snails - a mollusk shell is the remains of a once living animal, it signifies death and mortality. The creeping snail is the personification of the mortal sin of laziness. Large clams denote duality of nature, a symbol of lust, another of the deadly sins.

Harmen Steenwijck: Vanitas Still Life. 1640/50. London, National Gallery
Soap bubbles - the brevity of life and the suddenness of death; reference to expression homo bulla- “man is a soap bubble.”
Simon Renard de Saint-André, c. 1650 Vanitas
Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon, France.
A dying, smoking candle (cinder) or oil lamp; cap for extinguishing candles - a burning candle is a symbol of the human soul, its extinguishing symbolizes departure.

Peter Claeszoon, Vanitas,

Bartholomeus Brain the Elder (1493-1555): 1st half. 16th century - Vanitas
- Kreller-Müller Museum (Otterlo - Netherlands)

Antonio de Pereda (1608-1678)Vanitas -Finnish National Gallery
Cups, playing cards or dice, chess (rarely) are a sign of an erroneous life goal, a search for pleasure and a sinful life. Equality of opportunity in gambling also meant reprehensible anonymity.

Anoniem (Frankrijk)Vanitas. around 1650. Louvre, Paris

Peter Moninckx: L'Amour endormi sur un crane. 17th century.
Museum of Fine Arts Bordeaux, France

Sebastian Stoskopff, Vanitas Still Life (1630)
Art collections, Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland

Antonio de Pereda (1608-1678) Vanitas - Florence, Uffizi.
A smoking pipe is a symbol of fleeting and elusive earthly pleasures.

Harmen Steenwijck, Vanitas (1640)
A carnival mask is a sign of the absence of a person inside it. Also intended for festive masquerade, irresponsible pleasure.

Antonio de Pereda (1608-1678), The Dream of a Knight.1655. Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, Madrid
Mirrors, glass (mirror) balls - a mirror is a symbol of vanity, in addition, it is also a sign of reflection, shadow, and not a real phenomenon.
Trophima Bigo, Allegory of Vanitas, 1650.Galleria di Palazzo Barberini in Rome

Georges de La Tour, Mary Magdalene, Penitent, (c. 1640).
Sammlung Wrightsman, New York
Broken dishes, usually glass glasses. An empty glass opposed to a full one symbolizes death. Glass symbolizes fragility, snow-white porcelain symbolizes purity. The mortar and pestle are symbols of male and female sexuality. The bottle is a symbol of the sin of drunkenness.

Sebastian Stoskopff, Vanitas (c. 1650)Museum de l"Oeuvre Notre Dame
A knife reminds us of human vulnerability and mortality. In addition, it is a phallic symbol and a hidden image of male sexuality.
Hourglass and mechanical clock - the transience of time.

Philippe de Champagne: still life in the vanitas genre - Life, Death and Time - three symbols
frailty of existence (represented by a tulip, a skull, an hourglass) 2nd floor. XVII century
Tesse Le Mans Museum

Antonio de Pereda (1608-1678)Vanitas - Museum of Fine Arts, Saragossa
Musical instruments represent the brevity and ephemeral nature of life, a symbol of the arts.
Cornelis de Heem,Vanitas Still life with musical instruments.1661.
Amsterdam Rijksmuseum
Books and maps ( mappa mundi), the writing pen is a symbol of science.

Anonimo (Francia)Vanitas with Sun Dial.between 1626 and 1656. Louvre, Paris

Pieter van Steenwyck - Vanitas

Peter Claes. (1597/1598-1660) Still life with a skull
Globe, both the earth and the starry sky.

Antonio de Pereda (1608-1678), Allegory of Vanity. 1634.
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Gemaldegalerie, Vienna
A palette with tassels, a laurel wreath (usually on the head of a skull) are symbols of painting and poetry.
Jan Miense Molenaer (1610-1668), Self-portrait. The artist in his studio. 1650. Bredius Museum
Portraits of beautiful women, anatomical drawings. Letters symbolize human relationships.
Red wax seals.
Medical instruments are a reminder of the diseases and frailty of the human body.
Wallets with coins, boxes with jewelry - jewelry and cosmetics are intended to create beauty, feminine attractiveness, at the same time they are associated with vanity, narcissism and the mortal sin of arrogance. They also signal the absence of their owners on the canvas.
Nicolas Regnier (1590-1667) Allegory of Mortality, 1626

Franciscus Geysbrechts, 2nd half. XVII century - Vanitas

Peter Claes. (1597/1598-1660) - Vanitas (1628)
Weapons and armor are a symbol of power and might, a designation of what cannot be taken with you to the grave.
Jurian van Streck, ca. 1670. Vanitas
A. S. Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow

Korie Everuto (Evert Collier), Vanitas).1669
Crown and papal tiaras, scepters and orbs, wreaths of leaves are signs of transient earthly domination, which is opposed to the heavenly world order. Like masks, they symbolize the absence of those who wore them.

Evert Collier (1630/50 -1708). Vanitas Still Life 1705

Pieter Boel, Still Life with a Coffin and Symbols of Power and Wealth (1663)
Keys - symbolize the power of the housewife managing supplies.

Peter Claes. Vanitas still life.1630.
Royal Art Gallery Mauritshuis, museum in The Hague
Ruins symbolize the transitory life of those who once inhabited them.
A sheet of paper with a moralizing (pessimistic) saying, for example:
Vanitas vanitatum; Ars longa vita brevis; Hodie mihi cras tibi (today for me, tomorrow for you); Finis gloria mundi; Memento mori; Homo bulla; In ictu oculi (in the blink of an eye); Aeterne pungit cito volat et occidit (the fame of heroic deeds will dissipate just like a dream); Omnia morte cadunt mors ultima linia rerum (everything is destroyed by death, death is the final boundary of all things); Nil omne (everything is nothing)

Very rarely, still lifes of this genre include human figures, sometimes a skeleton - the personification of death. Objects are often depicted in disarray, symbolizing the overthrow of the achievements they represent.

Antonio de Pereda (1608-1678)Gentleman and death.Hospital de la Caridad, Seville.

John Souch (1593 - 1645) Sir Thomas Aston, 1st Baronet (1600-1646)
at his wife's deathbed, 1635

Hals "France: Young man with a skull (Vanitas).1626-1628.
National Gallery London

Antoine Steenwinkel. Vanitas Self-portrait of the artist.
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp

Evert Collier (1630/50 -1708). Self-portrait with Vanitas
Still Life, 1684, Honolulu Academy of Fine Arts

Edward Collier (1673-1706), Self-Portrait

David Bailly (1584 - 1657) Self-Portrait with Vanitas Symbols, 1651

Bartholomew Hopfer (1628-1698), Melancholy (after 1643)
Museum of Fine Arts in Strasbourg

Juan Valdez Leal, In ictu oculi.1672

Juan Valdez Leal (1622 - 1690), Finis Mundi Gloriae

Caravaggio (1571-1610) St. Jerome, 1605-1606, Galleria Borghese, Rome.

Modern

Jeylina Ever. Vanitas symbolizing childhood illness, culture, time of passage
and death. year 2009. Development of the genre
Vanitas still lifes in their initial form were frontal images of skulls (usually in niches with a candle) or other symbols of death and mortality, which were written on the reverse of portraits during the Renaissance. These vanitas, as well as the flowers that were also painted on the backs, are the earliest examples of the still life genre in European art of the New Age (for example, the first Dutch still life was “Vanitas” by Jacob de Geyn).

Jacob de Geyn, 1603.
Above the arch are reliefs of the Weeping Heraclitus and the Laughing Democritus

These skulls on the back of the portraits symbolized the mortality of human nature (mors absconditus) and were contrasted with the living state of the model on the back of the picture. The earliest vanitas are usually the most modest and gloomy, often almost monochrome. Vanitas still lifes emerged as an independent genre around 1550. Artists of the 17th century stopped depicting the skull strictly frontally in the composition and usually “placed” it to the side. As the Baroque era progressed, these still lifes became more and more magnificent and abundant.

Balthasar van der Ast (c. 1593 - after 1656) "Fruit Basket", 1632.
State Museum, Berlin
They gained popularity by the 1620s. The development of the genre until its decline in popularity around the 1650s. centered in Leiden, a Dutch city that Bergstrom, in his study of Netherlandish still life painting, declared "the center of the creation of vanitas in the 17th century."
Leiden was an important center of Calvinism, a movement that condemned the moral depravity of mankind and strived for a strong moral code. Bergstrom believed that for Calvinist artists these still lifes were a warning against vanity and frailty and were an illustration of the Calvinist morality of the time. The formation of the genre was also probably influenced by humanistic views and the heritage of the memento mori genre. Source

Vanitas- a direction of painting that simply cannot be ignored. It is also called “Vanity of Vanities.” Such an unusual name comes from the Latin vanus, which translates as “perishable, empty.” The development of this direction began in the seventeenth century. European culture at that time was not going through the happiest period: a feeling of uncertainty about the future reigned in society, which was reflected in the fine arts.

“Vanity of vanities” - it’s hard to imagine a more appropriate name for a genre whose specifics help emphasize the fragility of human life, which can end at any moment. With the help of visual means characteristic of this genre, the frailty of existence is shown - through a variety of symbols that unconsciously influence human consciousness. And in the face of inevitable death, all political and religious problems begin to seem so meaningless!

Like any other genre, vanitas has a number of attributes unique to it, which carry a certain meaning and allow one to convey the futility of any action.

A symbol such as a skull is very common. It should suggest the inevitability of death. The skeleton is all that remains of our bodily shell, which is why the skull here is like a mirror image of our future.

Well, rotten fruits in this genre are depicted as a symbol of aging. If there are ripe fruits on the canvas, they mean fertility, abundance or wealth. Moreover, each fruit has its own meaning. Often in vanitas paintings you can see flowers, most often withering. Each flower also carries its own information, for example, a rose is a symbol of sex and love, it is vain, just like a person.

It is quite curious that in the vanitas style images there are soap bubbles, which would seem (in our usual perception) a symbol of the joy of life. But here everything is more complicated: in these pictures, a soap bubble means a short-term existence. And how easily it can burst indicates the suddenness of death. Other iconic attributes of this genre include candles (smoldering or dying), filled goblets, playing cards, smoking pipes, carnival masks, mirrors and broken dishes...

One could spend a long time listing the objects found in paintings in the vanitas genre, and even longer trying to interpret their meaning. But it will be more important to say the main thing: vanitas is an art that makes us think and rethink a lot.

Allegorical still life

Vanitas (lat. vanitas, lit. - “vanity, vanity, frailty”) - a genre variety of still life, representing the attributes of " frailty of earthly existence": hourglass, skull, globe, extinguished candle, ancient tome...

Antonio de Pereda (1608-1678) Vanitas - Florence, Uffizi.

A genre of Baroque painting, allegorical still life, the compositional center of which is traditionally the human skull. Such paintings, an early stage in the development of still life, were intended to serve as reminders of the transience of life, the futility of pleasure and the inevitability of death. It became most widespread in Flanders and the Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries; individual examples of the genre are found in France and Spain.

The term comes from the Bible verse ( Eccles. 1:2 ) Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas (“Vanity of vanities,” said Ecclesiastes, vanity of vanities, “all is vanity!”).

Juan Valdez Leal (1622 - 1690)

The sad appearance of these objects is neutralized by the gifts of the earth surrounding them: flowers, fruits, baskets of fruit and children playing with these things - putti. The aesthetics of a genre full of semantic contrasts and " reduced"tragic on the verge of ironic grotesque, typical of Baroque art.

Still lifes like " vanitas "began to appear in Flemish painting of the 17th century, and then became widespread in the art of Holland, Italy and Spain. The most famous masters P. van der Willige, M. Withos, J. fan Streck loved to paint still lifes-rebuses with mysterious objects and inscriptions. These paintings became a mystery of the Baroque era.

S.Stoskopff, Vanitas (c. 1650)

Spanish artists tended towards more optimistic bodegones, while the Italians, and especially the Venetians, preferred still lifes as an accessory, a background for depicting beautiful women at the toilet in front of the mirror. One of the most interesting still lifes by the Swiss J. Heinz ( OK. 1600) is located in the Pinacoteca Brera in Milan, Italy. In the genre "vanitas" Flemish painters worked in France: Philippe de Champaigne, J. Bouillon. It is characteristic that "vanitas "remained in the history of art primarily a Flemish and Dutch phenomenon.

Antonio de Pereda (1608-1678) Gentleman and death

The symbols found on the canvases were intended to remind us of the frailty of human life and the transience of pleasures and achievements:

Scull- a reminder of the inevitability of death. Just as a portrait is only a reflection of a once living person, so a skull is only the shape of a once living head. The viewer should perceive it as " reflection", it most clearly symbolizes the frailty of human life.

Rotten fruit- a symbol of aging.
Ripe fruits symbolize fertility, abundance, figuratively wealth and prosperity.
A number of fruits have their own meaning: the Fall is indicated pears, tomatoes, citruses, grapes, peaches and cherries, and of course, apples. Have erotic overtones figs, plums, cherries, apples or peaches.
Flowers ( fading) ; rose is the flower of Venus, a symbol of love and sex, which is vain, like everything inherent in man. Poppy is a sedative from which opium is made, a symbol of the mortal sin of laziness. The tulip is a collectible in the 17th century Netherlands, a symbol of thoughtlessness, irresponsibility and unreasonable handling of a God-given fortune.

Adrian van Utrecht

Sprouts of grain, branches of ivy or laurel ( rarely) - a symbol of rebirth and the cycle of life.
Sea shells, Sometimes live snails- a mollusk shell is the remains of a once living animal; it signifies death and mortality. The creeping snail is the personification of the mortal sin of laziness. Large mollusks denote the duality of nature, a symbol of lust, another of the deadly sins.
Bottle- a symbol of the sin of drunkenness.
Red wax seals, medical instruments- a reminder of the diseases and frailty of the human body.
Bubble- shortness of life and suddenness of death; reference to expression homo bulla - « man eating a soap bubble».

Simon - Renard de Saint - André

▪ Cups, playing cards or dice, chess (rarely)- a sign of an erroneous life goal, a search for pleasure and a sinful life. Equality of opportunity in gambling also meant reprehensible anonymity.

Smoking pipe- a symbol of fleeting and elusive earthly pleasures.

Extinguishing smoking candle(cinder) or oil lamp; cap for extinguishing candles - a burning candle is a symbol of the human soul, its extinguishing symbolizes departure.

Carnival mask- is a sign of the absence of a person inside her. Also intended for festive masquerade, irresponsible pleasure.

Antonio de Pereda (1608–1678), The Knight's Dream.1655

Mirrors, glass (mirror) balls- the mirror is a symbol of vanity, in addition, it is also a sign of reflection, shadow, and not a real phenomenon.

Jacob de Geyn

Broken dishes, usually glass glasses.
Empty glass, opposed to complete, symbolizes death. Glass symbolizes fragility, snow white porcelain- cleanliness. The mortar and pestle are symbols of male and female sexuality.

Knife- reminds us of human vulnerability and mortality. It is also a phallic symbol and a hidden image of male sexuality.
Hourglass and mechanical watches- the transience of time.

F. de Champagne

Musical instruments, notes- the brevity and ephemeral nature of life, a symbol of the arts.

M. Harnett

Books and maps ( mappa mundi), writing pen- symbol of science.
globe, both the earth and the starry sky.
Palette with tassels, laurel wreath (usually on the head of a skull)- symbols of painting and poetry.
Portraits of beautiful women, anatomical drawings. Letters symbolize human relationships.

Pieter Claesz

Coin purses, jewelry boxes- jewelry and cosmetics are intended to create beauty, feminine attractiveness, but at the same time they are associated with vanity, narcissism and the mortal ▪sin of arrogance. They also signal the absence of their owners on the canvas.
Weapons and armor- a symbol of power and might, a designation of what cannot be taken with you to the grave.

Korie Everuto (Evert Collier), Vanitas).1669

Crowns and papal tiaras, scepters and orbs, leaf wreaths- signs of transient earthly domination, which is opposed to the heavenly world order. Like masks, they symbolize the absence of those who wore them.
Keys- symbolize the power of a housewife managing supplies.
Ruin- symbolize the transitory life of those who once inhabited them.

Bartholomeus Brain the Elder 1st half. XVI century

A sheet of paper with a moralizing (pessimistic) saying, For example: Vanitas vanitatum; Ars longa vita brevis; Hodie mihi cras tibi (today for me, tomorrow for you); Finis gloria mundi; Memento mori; Homo bulla; In ictu oculi (in the blink of an eye); Aeterne pungit cito volat et occidit (the fame of heroic deeds will dissipate just like a dream); Omnia morte cadunt mors ultima linia rerum (everything is destroyed by death, death is the final boundary of all things); Nil omne (everything is nothing)

Artists of the 17th century stopped depicting the skull strictly frontally in the composition and usually “ put» him aside. As the Baroque era progressed, these still lifes became more and more magnificent and abundant.

Very rarely still lifes of this genre include human figures, sometimes a skeleton - the personification of death. Objects are often depicted in disarray, symbolizing the overthrow of the achievements they represent.

Evert Collier (1630/50 -1708). Self-portrait with Vanitas

A. Steenwinkel. Vanitas Self-portrait of the artist.

David Bailly (1584 - 1657) Self-Portrait with Vanitas, 1651