A skull, a glass vase of flowers, an hourglass, and two small dishes are arranged on a charcoal-gray ledge against a fawn-brown background in this vertical still life painting. Soap bubbles float around the objects to our right, and several insects alight on the flowers or ledge. At the center of the composition, the dark, parchment-colored skull is missing the lower jaw and front teeth, and the crown is wrapped with a single stalk of wheat. To our right of the skull and tucked in near the hollow of the cheek, a short, glass vase with a bulbous bottom, narrow neck, and slightly flaring lip…
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Vanitas Still Life

painter Jan van Kessel the Elder (Flemish, 1626 - 1679)

c. 1665/1670

Medium
oil on copper
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
overall: 20.3 x 15.2 cm (8 x 6 in.)
Culture
Flemish
Museum
National Gallery of Art, CNE-B
Credit line
Gift of Maida and George Abrams
Rights
Public domain (NGA Open Access, CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed

View at the National Gallery of Art