It illuminates the skull and acts as a balance to the triangle of objects. In this area you get a beam of light descending from the opposite diagonal.
One half of the painting is filled with symbolic objects, the other half shows emptiness which has a meaning of spiritual existence. The aim of a Vanitas is to have the diagonal lines that constructs the arrangement. The image to the right shows how a still life Vanities should be displayed. Technology: In the 17th century the first refracting telescope was invented by Lans Lippershey in 1608, earliest submarine powered by human created by Cornelis Dribble, 1620, methods for blood transfusion by Jean Baptiste Denys, 1625, a steam turbine by Giovanni Branca, 1629 and an air pump by Otto von Guericke, 1650. These performances where only seen by the members of court and held at royal palaces. Poor people at this time would have plain diet, such as bread, cheese and onions.Įntertainment : The entertainment in the 17th century involved music, arts, theatre, pastime games such as bowls and cards, outdoor games such as tennis, shuttlecock, games like chess, drafts also animal fighting (cock, bull and bear).Masques, spectacular private performances involving music, dance, costumes, scenery and special effects. Later decades, the overskirt was drawn back and pinned up to display the petticoat, heavily decorated.įood : New foods where introduced for the rich as they could only afford this, bananas, pineapples, hot drinks such as chocolate, tea and coffee. The full, loose sleeves ended just below the elbow at mid century, became longer, tighter in keeping with the new trend. High wasted look of the previous period was superseded by a long line vertically, horizontal emphasis at the shoulder. Christianity was split, catholicism and protestantism.įashion : The fashion in the 17th century, women wore corsets, low, broad neckline and dropped shoulder. Religion: In the 17th century religion was very important, it was vital in everyday life. This ended up with the execution of King Charles I. Its known as the ‘great’ plague because it was the last widespread outbreak of bubonic plague in England.Ĭivil War: 1642-1651, this was conflicts and political machinations between parliamentarians and royalists over the manner of England’s government. It was usually spread through a bite from an infected rat flea. Plague: This lasted from 1665 to 1666, this killed 100,000 people, a quarter of London’s population.
Jars made of stoneware or porcelain was used for water or oil, these are to symbolise elements that sustain life. The mirror was shown as the most obvious vanity that should be avoided. Jewellery, clothing and mirrors all are a nature of beauty, wealth and wisdom. Silk or velvet tablecloths where seen as vanity as these where expensive, silk was the ultimate fabric, purple was the most expensive dye. Instruments, these where to symbolise pleasures of the senses, seen as a luxury of life. Playing cards, dice, cups are a sign of faulty life goal, finding pleasures and sinful life Globes represent the earth and the globe. Soap Bubbles these symbolise human life, transience of beauty and the inevitability of death. All kinds of fruit on a stand or bowl, half peeled lemon Erotic undertones are figs, plums, cherries, apples or peaches. A number of fruit has its value: fall of man is denoted by pears, tomatoes, citrus fruit, grapes, peaches and cherries, and of course Apple. Poppy symbolises depressant produces opium, mortal sin of laziness.įruit this is to symbolise aging when rotton, mature fruits symbolise fertility. A rose, the flower of venus symbolise love and sex, vain and inherent. Sometimes a shell can be seen in a portrait, the shells are normally exotic, they symbol vanity that comes with wealth.įlowers symbolise transitory things. The skull is their to represent death, other objects which relate to death and the passing of life are the hour glass, oil lamp or candle that’s been extinguished.īooks are their to show the human knowledge But there are other objects in the paintings which are also their to symbolise the meanings in life and the worthlessness of worldly pleasures and goods.
Vanitas is closely related to momento mori, to remind someone of the shortness and fragility of life, the most common objects in a vanitas painting is the skull and the extinguished candle. A type of still life painting that flourished the Netherlands from about 1620 to 1650, converying a religious message and characterized by objects symbolic of mortality and the meaninglessness of worldly pleasures.Īn object kept as a reminder of the inevitability of death, such as a skull.
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