Vanitas, 1628, Heda, Willem Claesz (1594-1680) / Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, Netherlands
Vanitas is a genre of still-life painting that flourished in the Netherlands in the early 17th century containing objects symbolic of the inevitability of death and vanity of earthly pleasures reminding the viewer of their own mortality.
The vanitas evolved from simple pictures of skulls and other symbols of death and transience frequently painted on the reverse sides of portraits during the late Renaissance. It had acquired an independent status by c. 1550 and by 1620 had become a popular genre. Its development until its decline about 1650 was centred in Leiden, in the United Provinces of the Netherlands, an important seat of Calvinism, which emphasized humanity’s total depravity and advanced a rigid moral code.
Although a few vanitas pictures include figures, the vast majority are still lifes, containing certain standard elements: symbols of arts and sciences (books, maps, and musical instruments), wealth and power (purses, jewelry, gold objects), and earthly pleasures (goblets, pipes, and playing cards); symbols of death or transience (skulls, clocks, burning candles, soap bubbles, and flowers); and, sometimes, symbols of resurrection and eternal life (usually ears of corn or sprigs of ivy). Objects were often tumbled together in disarray, suggesting the eventual overthrow of the achievements they represent.
Several of the greatest Dutch still-life painters, including Jan Davidsz de Heem, Willem Claesz Heda and Harmen van Steenwyck were masters of the vanitas still life, and the influence of the genre, also referred to as memto mori, can be seen in the iconography of artists working today, including Damien Hirst.
Over 100 images of the vanitas genre
Reference: Britannia Online Encyclopedia.