Jan van der Heyden
Jan van der Heyden was a Dutch Baroque-era painter, glass painter, draftsman, and printmaker, who became one of the leading architectural painters of the Dutch Golden Age. Today we present one of his vanitas still lifes, part of a long Biblical tradition.
In the foregrounds of the painting we see the Bible open at the famous line from Ecclesiastes: "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." The message is that all earthly knowledge and beauty are futile, for in the end comes death, and all that man has accumulated vanishes.
Earthly knowledge is symbolized here by Willem Blaeu's atlas, the origin of every Dutch expedition, which lies open at Bergen op Zoom, where one of the battles in the Dutch war of independence against Spain was won in 1622. Then we are taken on a journey over all the routes of the glorious Dutch merchant fleets, with a Turkish carpet, Chinese silk and porcelain, Japanese weapons, and a stuffed armadillo from South America. The fireplace includes symbols of the classical tradition: the tragedy of Dido and the German cabinet decorated with an image of Minerva. Finally, terrestrial, and celestial globes raise the ensemble to the universal dimension.
One last tidbit: van der Heyden painted this masterpiece at the age of 75, the year he died.
P.S. You can also learn all about women of the Dutch Golden Age. <3