Vanitas Still Life (1630)

Pieter Claesz painted Vanitas Still Life around 1630, which is displayed at the Hague’s Mauritshuis. It is in the tradition of Memento mori – 'remember you must die', a favourite theme among early-modern artists and sculptors. It may seem a little melancholic and gloomy to our secular age, but each one of us shall live once and then face the judgement. The scene includes a snuffed-out candle, a watch, an empty glass, and a skull. Each item conveys a message of mortality, a reminder of life’s brevity and concision.

Pieter Claesz was a Haarlem artist and became well-known for his limited colour palette. Here he employs only full browns with a few greenish hints; a dash of blue is used for the ribbon of the watch with which a key is attached. Thus drawing attention to the key, Claesz might be hinting that there is a solution or an escape from the inevitable demise:

Jesus said “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.” John 11:25