Vase of Flowers 

Odilon Redon, around the turn of the century, painted this still life, a ‘Vase of Flowers’, brimming with symbolic weight. Flowers, emblems of ephemerality, are here rendered with an almost dreamlike quality, floating between the tangible and the ethereal. Roses, traditionally symbols of love and beauty, are juxtaposed with wildflowers, suggesting a deeper, more complex narrative. Throughout history, flowers appear as memento mori, and as vanitas symbols, reminding us of the transience of life. Consider the blue vase itself: the color of the Virgin’s mantle, a vessel holding not just flowers, but also a sense of the sacred. The arrangement evokes a feeling of melancholy, perhaps even a touch of the macabre, engaging our subconscious with themes of beauty, decay, and the cyclical nature of existence.