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Still Life with Books
Also titled Stilleven met boeken
Jan Davidsz. de Heem (Utrecht, 1606–1683)
c. 1628 - c. 1629
- Medium
- panel, oil paint (paint)
- Classification
- painting
- Dimensions
- depth 5.5 cm
- Museum
- Rijksmuseum
- Credit line
- Gift of the heirs of C. Hoogendijk, The Hague
- Rights
- Public Domain Mark, 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
About this work
Grey and brown tints dominate this composition, and a shadow spreads slowly over the wall. The painting alludes to the fleetingness of life. The battered books allude to transience. The music produced by the lute is momentary, a symbol of the brevity of life. A literal reference to death is inscribed on the sheet of paper draped over the table’s edge: ‘finis’ ([the] end).
