Vanitas

This 1618 Vanitas is an early exploration by Jordaens of the still-life allegory of mortality and the transience of earthly pleasures. The vanitas theme pervaded Flemish Baroque art as a reminder that all worldly goods and achievements are ultimately meaningless in the face of death. Jordaens, who outlived both Rubens and Van Dyck to become the dominant figure in Flemish Baroque painting for the second half of the seventeenth century, was particularly celebrated for his exuberant genre subjects, especially his series on the Flemish proverb about the King of the Bean.

The painting combines symbolic objects associated with mortality and transience, rendered with Jordaens' warm palette and naturalistic attention to material textures that paradoxically celebrate the very beauty they warn against.