Vanitas Still Life c. 1665 - 1670

Jan van Kessel painted this Vanitas Still Life on a small copper plate, a meditation on the transience of earthly existence, filled with symbolic objects. Dominating the composition is the skull, crowned with a wreath, a potent symbol of mortality since antiquity. We see it in ancient Roman memento mori, and it reappears in medieval danse macabre imagery. The surrounding roses, butterflies and fragile bubbles speak to the fleeting nature of life's beauty and pleasure. This imagery evokes a deep sense of melancholy, a poignant recognition of our own impermanence. Consider the wreath: in ancient times, it signified victory and eternal life. But here, entwined around a skull, it serves as a stark reminder that even triumphs and earthly glories are ultimately subject to decay. It echoes the cycle of life, death, and rebirth—a subconscious echo resonating through the ages, prompting contemplation on the ephemeral nature of human existence. Indeed, these symbols are not fixed, but fluid, continually reshaped by culture and individual experience.