Vanitas still life

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The vanitas still life (Latin vanitas "vanity", "nothingness") is a picture type of still life painting , especially in the baroque era . The portrayal of inanimate objects is complemented by symbols of transience.

Pictorial objects and interpretation

Theodor Matham
Vanitas , 1622, copper engraving, 22.9 × 32.8 cm, Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
The copper engraving gives valuable information about these objects and those associated with them through the title Vanitas (pictured!) Activities that were interpreted as vain and ephemeral.
Joos van Cleve
Saint Jerome in a case , approx. 1520-25, oil on oak, 76.7 × 105.4 cm, Museum Kunstpalast , Düsseldorf

References to the transience of earthly existence and the accumulated worldly treasures can be found in almost every still life of the 17th century . Particularly in the first half of the 17th century, the depiction of optically attractive and / or expensive luxury objects never seems to have been possible without the reference to the frailty of this earthly vanity also contained in the picture. In this context, the vanitas still life is the purest expression of this worldview in art. It can be understood as a “private devotional image ” with the function of a “memory aid for meditation on death and eternal life” .

Sibylle Ebert-Schifferer sees a difference between the references in other types of still life (flower, meal, smoking still life etc.) and the autonomous vanitas still life. The reference to the end in combination with the glorification of prosperity - for example in meal still life - has a negative effect. Reflecting on the inevitable in vanitas still life with the tendency to overcome earthly vanity in the direction of eternal life in the hereafter is, however, a positive consideration. The vanitas picture required active intellectual participation from the contemporary observer - also in the sense of a moral reflection on himself.

The props of vanitas were summarized by Ingvar Bergström into three large groups. The first group includes symbols of earthly existence. They are things whose value is only apparently constant: books, musical instruments, money and valuables, insignia of power and greatness and works of fine art. These objects also outline the different areas of life: everyday life ( vita activa ), the spiritual life in art and science ( vita contemplativa ) as well as enjoyment and lust ( vita voluptaria ). The second group consists of symbols of transience in the form of objects that are inherently decaying and whose appearance arouses thought, such as the skull, the hourglass, the dying candle, withering flowers and overturned or broken glasses. The third group is made up of symbols of rebirth and eternal life such as ears of corn, laurel and ivy .

The importance of the objects as symbols and references in the Vanitas still lifes as well as in all other types of still lifes is explained by contemporary intellectual riddles, poetry ( Cats , Bredero etc.) and above all the emblems popular at the time - above all the pops of sense from Roemer Visscher and Zinne -Beelden by Jan van der Veen.

A special symbol of transience is the skull, which can be found again and again in the vanitas still lifes, which reveals the roots of this type of still life in antiquity, the late medieval memento-mori depictions and the autonomous depictions of vanitas on the outside of diptychs. The depictions of Jerome meditating in the midst of his books and scientific instruments - sometimes with a skull - are of particular importance.

An equally essential object in the Vanitas still life is the book. On the one hand, to be understood as a symbol of learning, as an instrument of science it also embodied the arrogance to which the thirst for knowledge could lead. The university city of Leiden was the center of science in Holland in the 17th century . This city can also be seen as the center of vanitas painting. Last but not least, this is probably due to the fact that noticeably often books, and thus the sciences, are thematized in the paintings and the vanitas picture probably required a recipient who could be described as learned.

The vanitas still life made its big appearance in still life painting, especially in the 1720s. It cannot be a coincidence that the image of vanitas, which so impressively thematizes death as the end of everything earthly, emerged increasingly in the course of a threatening political situation. In 1621 the Protestant northern provinces resumed fighting with the Catholic Habsburgs after a 12-year armistice . In addition, there were plague epidemics in 1624/25 and 1636. The thesis of the connection between vanitas still life and real, life-threatening situations is supported by the fact that the production of such paintings after the Peace of Westphalia of 1648 and especially from the 1660s in times of Stability and security decreased.

Artist and development

Jacques de Gheyn II.
Vanitas , 1603, oil on panel, 82.5 × 54 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York

By Jacques de Gheyn II. Already exists from 1603 an autonomous Vanitas representation in which even the skull as a symbol of death has its place. His student David Bailly is considered an essential master of the vanitas still life. His activity as a painter in Leiden from 1613 shaped many artists associated with the city and established Leiden's reputation as an essential center of still life painting.

Even Rembrandt had his studio in the city before moving in 1631 to Amsterdam. Rembrandt is not famous for his still lifes, but his clayey painting, which mainly prefers brown tones, had a tremendous influence on the surrounding artists - including those of David Baillys. The still lifes of the Rembrandt pupil Gerard Dou are also interesting . They can best be described as a hybrid of the autonomous image of vanitas and trompe-l'oeil . This impression is reinforced by the fact that Dou did not produce his still lifes as paintings for sale, but used them to decorate the doors of the cupboards in which he kept his precious and meticulously executed fine paintings.

Rembrandt's toned painting style, as well as Leiden still life painting in general, had an impact on another great artist of the century - namely Jan Davidsz. de Heem . By this artist, who later became famous primarily for his large flower and fruit compositions, there are early paintings from his time in Leiden (1625–31) in the style of the city's typical brown-colored book still lifes.

Also the two painters Pieter Claesz and Willem Claesz, famous for their meal still lifes. Heda from Haarlem were convincing vanitas painters. Claesz. early Vanitas still life from 1624 in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister Dresden deals with the subject quite independently. The portrait format painting shows objects presented in front of a curtain, such as a golden cup with a lid , seashells, a clock, a book, etc. Claesz. However, he did not stick to this image conception and repeatedly painted vanitas pictures at different times, which however clearly correspond to the style of the monochrome banketjes .

In the following generation of painters, the two nephews and pupils of Bailly - the brothers Pieter and Harmen Steenwijck - stand out as painters of the Vanitas still life. Harmen Steenwijck's Vanitas Still Life from around 1640 in the National Gallery in London is no longer a clayey book still life, but an arrangement that again emphasizes the local colors. It shows various objects, including a lute , a conspicuously placed shell and the skull. What is special is the presence of large empty spaces in the picture, the strong diagonals in the composition and the emphasis on the edge of the table.

Beyond suffering, Evert Collier and Vincent Laurensz apply. van der Vinne, NL Peschier, Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts and Franciscus Gijsbrechts as important vanitas painters. Sébastien Bonnecroy represented, possibly mediated through Jan Davidsz. de Heem, the vanitas still life in Flanders. Vanitas still life came from Flanders to France, where, for example, Simon Renard de Saint-André worked.

Especially in the second half of the 17th century, the vanitas still life lost its artistic expressiveness and thus its importance. The transformation in line with contemporary painting trends from vanitas still lifes to almost purely decorative and almost overloaded pompous still lifes can no longer be overlooked , for example, in paintings by Jacques de Claeuw or Pieter Boel. What is interesting about the vanitas still lifes produced in the second half of the 17th century and later is the adoption of the portrait format and the combination of the arrangement of objects with a recognizable environment such as a study room or a park landscape.

See also

literature

To the emblems

  • Jan van der Veen: Zinne-Beelden, often Adams Appel. Wees, Amsterdam 1660.
  • Roemer Visscher: Popping the senses. Willem Jansz. Blaeu, Amsterdam 1614.
    Used here: Roemer Visscher: Sinnepoppen. Edition L. Brummel. Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague 1949.

reference books

  • Hermain Bazin & Horst Gerson & Rolf Linnenkamp u. a .: Kinderl's painting lexicon . Kindler, Zurich 1985, pp. 282-286 (Volume 11).
  • General artist lexicon (AKL). The visual artists of all times and peoples. KG Saur, Munich and Leipzig 1991ff., ISBN 3-598-22740-X .
  • Erika Gemar-Költzsch: Dutch still life painter in the 17th century. Luca-Verlag, Lingen 1995, ISBN 3-923641-41-9 .
  • Fred G. Meijer & Adriaan van der Willigen: A dictionary of Dutch and Flemish still-life painters working in oils. 1525-1725. Primavera Press, Leiden 2003, ISBN 90-74310-85-0 .
  • Wolf Stadler u. a .: Lexicon of Art. Painting, architecture, sculpture. Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen 1994, pp. 167-176 (volume 11).
  • Gerhard Strauss & Harald Olbrich: Lexicon of Art. Architecture, fine arts, applied arts, industrial design, art theory. Seemann, Leipzig 1994, pp. 64-67 (volume 7).
  • Ulrich Thieme, Felix Becker (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists from Antiquity to the Present . Leipzig 1907 to 1950.
  • Hans Vollmer: General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century added . Leipzig 1953 to 1962

Monographs and exhibition catalogs

  • Ingvar Bergström: Dutch still-life painting in the seventeenth century . Translated from the Swedish by Christina Hedström and Gerald Taylor. Faber & Faber, London 1956.
  • Sybille Ebert-Schifferer : The history of still life , Hirmer Verlag, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-7774-7890-3 .
  • Claus Grimm : Still life. The Italian, Spanish and French masters . Belser, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-7630-2303-8 ; New edition 2001, 2010 ISBN 978-3-7630-2562-6
  • Claus Grimm : Still life. The Dutch and German masters . Belser, Stuttgart / Zurich 1988 ISBN 3-7630-1945-6 ; New edition 2001, 2010 ISBN 978-3-7630-2562-6
  • Eddy de Jongh (Ed.): Still-life in the age of Rembrandt. (Aust.cat .: Auckland City Art Gallery & National Art Gallery Wellington & Robert McDougall Art Gallery Christchurch 1982). Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland 1982, ISBN 0-86463-101-4 .
  • Gerhard Langemeyer & Hans-Albert Peeters (eds.): Still life in Europe. (Aust.kat .: Westphalian State Museum for Art and Cultural History Münster & State Art Hall Baden-Baden 1980). Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe, Münster 1979.
  • Simon Schama: Overvloed en onbehagen: de Nederlandse cultuur in de Gouden Eeuw. Translated from the English by Eugène Dabekaussen, Barbara de Lange en Tilly Maters. Contact, Amsterdam 1988, ISBN 90-254-6838-1 .
  • Norbert Schneider: Still life. Reality and symbolism of things; the still life painting of the early modern period. Taschen, Cologne 1989, ISBN 3-8228-0398-7 .
  • Martina Sitt, Hubertus Gaßner (ed.): Mirror of secret wishes. Still life from five centuries. Hirmer Verlag Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-7774-4195-5 .

Essays and Articles

  • Eddy de Jongh: De interpretatie van stillevens: boundaries en mogelijkheden. In: Eddy de Jongh: Kwesties van betekenis. Subject en motief in de Nederlandse schilderkunst van de zeventiende eeuw. Primavera Pers, Leiden 1995, ISBN 90-74310-14-1 , pp. 130-148.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ It should be reminded here again that not all Dutch or Dutch still lifes are loaded with meanings equally. The skull is a sure sign of the memory of the end of life. However, today's observer should carefully approach the possible symbolic elements. Eddy de Jongh clearly emphasizes that the idea that all still lifes are equally heavy and
    inevitably loaded with deeper meanings does not correspond to the truth: “Hoe levendig de zeventiende eeuw ook met symboliek may zijn omsprongen, de thought dat alle stillevens uit deze tijd overzwaar met referenties are loaded, kan - pace Roemer Visscher - niet juist zijn. ”
    Eddy de Jongh: De interpretatie van stillevens. (1995), p. 132.
  2. ↑ The word " Vanitas " is not an afterthought, but can be found in the inventories of the 17th century as a name for such paintings.
    See: Ingvar Bergström: Dutch still-life painting in the seventeenth century. (1956), p. 154, note 1 (= p. 307).
  3. ↑ a b Sibylle Ebert-Schifferer: The story of the still life. (1998), p. 145.
  4. ↑ "A study of emblems, riddles, and other contemporary literature will make it abundantly clear that a Vanitas is not only a melancholy statement of the fact that death brings an end to science and to art, to wealth, to power, and to enjoyment of life in all its forms, but that it also has a moralizing aim. ”
    Ingvar Bergström: Dutch still-life painting in the seventeenth century. (1956), p. 156.
  5. ^ Ingvar Bergström: Dutch still-life painting in the seventeenth century. (1956), p. 154.
  6. ↑ An often-quoted emblem from Visscher's pop of senses is the one with the title Pessima placent pluribus . The meaning is analogous: "What is bad (forbidden) is the most fun" ("het zyn de worst things, die de meesten aantrekken"). The emblem shows a drinker who cannot keep his measure and below him symbols for gambling (playing cards, dice, money). These objects can be found in contemporary vanitas still lifes. Visscher's emblem gives today's observer hints on how the symbols can be interpreted.
    See: The emblem Pessima placent pluribus in the DBNL.
  7. ↑ According to Eddy de Jongh, the skull in the still life is one of the few objects with a clear meaning - the reference to death. The other objects have a certain ambiguity that must be taken into account every time.
    Eddy de Jongh: De interpretatie van stillevens. (1995), p. 132.
  8. ↑ Sibylle Ebert-Schifferer: The story of the still life. (1998), p. 137.
  9. ↑ Sibylle Ebert-Schifferer: The story of the still life. (1998), p. 140.
  10. ^ Roemer Visscher saw the books as "Kruyt voor de wilde woeste"; thus as a means against ignorance.
    See: Roemer Visscher: Sinnepoppen (1614), p. 30.
    The emblem Kruyt voor de wilde woeste in the DBNL.
  11. ^ Ingvar Bergström: Dutch still-life painting in the seventeenth century. (1956), p. 156.
  12. ↑ Sibylle Ebert-Schifferer: The story of the still life. (1998), p. 137ff.
  13. ^ Ingvar Bergström: Dutch still-life painting in the seventeenth century. (1956), p. 189.
  14. ↑ Sibylle Ebert-Schifferer: The story of the still life. (1998), p. 137.
  15. ^ Ingvar Bergström: Dutch still-life painting in the seventeenth century. (1956), p. 158.
  16. ↑ Possibly there is also a parallel here to the meal still lifes , which had their prime increasingly in the period when the supply of food was a worrying topic.
  17. ↑ Norbert Schneider takes a somewhat contrary position in that he thinks that the vanitas still life v. a. would have flourished after the Thirty Years' War , which, however, ignores the many paintings in the first half of the 17th century.
    Norbert Schneider: Stilleben (1989), p. 79.
  18. ↑ Bergström in particular underlines the importance and influence of Bailly.
    "It might well indicate that he was the central figure in this group of artists."
    Ingvar Bergström: Dutch still-life painting in the seventeenth century. (1956), p. 173.
  19. ^ A b Ingvar Bergström: Dutch still-life painting in the seventeenth century. (1956), p. 159.
  20. ↑ Sibylle Ebert-Schifferer: The story of the still life. (1998), p. 140.
  21. ^ Ingvar Bergström: Dutch still-life painting in the seventeenth century. (1956), p. 179.
  22. ↑ About Pieter Steenwijck  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in the database of the RKD.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.rkd.nl  
  23. ↑ About Harmen Steenwijck  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in the database of the RKD.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.rkd.nl  
  24. ↑ Via Evert Collier  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in the database of the RKD.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.rkd.nl  
  25. ↑ Via Vincent Laurensz. van der Vinne  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in the database of the RKD.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.rkd.nl  
  26. ↑ About NL Peschier  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in the database of the RKD.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.rkd.nl  
  27. ↑ About Franciscus Gijsbrechts  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in the database of the RKD.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.rkd.nl  
  28. ↑ About Sébastien Bonnecroy  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in the database of the RKD.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.rkd.nl  
  29. ↑ About Simon Renard de Saint-André  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in the database of the RKD.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.rkd.nl  
  30. ↑ Sibylle Ebert-Schifferer: The story of the still life. (1998), p. 144.
  31. ↑ “From the artistic point of view, however, most Vanitas painters during the second half of the seventeenth century illustrate the decline of the genre; Vincent Laurensz. van der Vinne, J. Vermeulen, Edwaert Colyer, Franciscus Gysbrechts, and Pieter Gerritsz. van Roestraeten are examples. "
    Ingvar Bergström: Dutch still-life painting in the seventeenth century. (1956), p. 178.
  32. ↑ About Pieter Boel  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in the database of the RKD.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.rkd.nl  

Web links

Commons : Vanitas  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files