A Vanitas Still Life with a Flag, Candlestick, Musical Instruments, Books, Writing Paraphernalia, Globes, and Hourglass
1662
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
98 × 129.7 cm (38 1/2 × 51 in.); Framed: 122 × 152.4 cm (48 × 60 in.)
Classification
painting
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
258490
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This ambitious still life conjures the complexities of Dutch colonization and cartography in the 1600s. Casually arranged on a table are a book about seafaring, which includes a map of the Americas copied from a 1660 print; a volume on the history of Holland (Oud Batavia), a clever reference to the Dutch Republic’s new territory in Indonesia (Batavia); and the terrestrial and celestial globes, positioned to show the Pacific Ocean and lands the Dutch had newly reached. While the inscriptions on t...