Vanitas Still Life
1662
Medium
Oil on wood
Dimensions
37 x 44 1/8 in. (94 x 112.1 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, 1871
Accession Number
71.19
Tags
Art Historical Context
Edwaert Collier's *Vanitas Still Life* (166), an oil on wood painting measuring 37 x 44 1/8 inches, the Dutch Golden Age's fascination with memento mori themes. Acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1871, this work belongs to the European Paintings department and masterfully employs the vanitas genre—a popular 17th-century still life tradition in the Netherlands. During this prosperous era, artists like Collier used everyday luxuries to meditate on mortality, urging viewers reflect on life's fleeting nature amid economic and cultural flourishing. The composition brims with symbolic ob...