Pieter Claesz, Vanitas Still Life

The prosperous Dutch were justifiably proud of their accomplishments, and the popularity of still-life paintings – particularly images of accumulated goods – reflected this pride. These paintings of worldly possessions marked the emergence of an important new class of art patrons – wealthy merchants – who had tastes distinctly different from those of the leading patrons elsewhere in Baroque Europe, namely royalty and the Catholic Church. Dutch still lifes, which were well suited to the Protestant ethic rejecting most religious art, are among the finest ever painted.

One of the best Dutch paintings of this genre is Vanitas Still Life by Pieter Claesz, in which the painter presents the material possessions of a prosperous household strewn across a tabletop or dresser. The ever-present morality and humility central to the Calvinist faith tempered Dutch pride in worldly goods, however. Thus, although Claesz fostered the appreciation and enjoyment of the beauty and value of the objects he depicted, he also reminded the viewer of life’s transience by incorporating references to death. Art historians call works of this type vanitas  (“vanity”) paintings, and each features a memento mori (“reminder of death”). In Vanitas Still Life, references to mortality include the skull, timepiece, tipped glass, and cracked walnut. All but now is gone. Claesz emphasized this element of  time (and demonstrated his technical virtuosity) by including a self-portrait reflected in the glass ball on the left side of the table. He appears to be painting this still life. But in an apparent challenge to the message of inevitable mortality that vanitas paintings convey, the portrait serves to immortalize the artist.^[1]