# Vanitas Still Life with the Spinario

- By: Pieter Claesz (Berchem, ca. –1660)
- Date: 1628
- Medium: panel, oil paint (paint)
- Classification: painting
- Dimensions: support: height 70.5 cm x width 80.5 cm
- Museum: [Rijksmuseum](https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/SK-A-3930--bbb5e22a27c5fece89952a1f258fd1eb)
- Rights: [Public Domain Mark](http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/)
- Picture: https://iiif.micr.io/OUCmC/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Appearances can be deceptive – certainly in painting, which gives only an impression of reality. Here Claesz presents the study materials of an educated painter: books, drawings, armour, musical instruments and a plaster cast of the Spinario, a famous antique sculpture of a boy extracting a thorn from his foot. On the table are a paintbrush and a palette, along with bones and a skull. The message is clear: the world is mere illusion and transience (vanitas).