Jacob de Gheyn II (c. 1565-1629)
“Vanitas” (1603)
Oil on wood
Located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, New York, United States
This painting is generally considered to be the earliest known independent still-life painting of a vanitas subject, or symbolic depiction of human vanity.
The skull, large bubble, cut flowers, and smoking urn refer to the brevity of life, while images floating in the bubble—such as a wheel of torture and a leper’s rattle—refer to human folly. The figures flanking the arch above are Democritus and Heraclitus, the laughing and weeping philosophers of ancient Greece.
