Shop art print and framed art Vanitas still life by David Bailly

"Vanité aux portraits (ou au portrait)", "Autoportrait avec symboles de Vanité", or "Vanité, nature morte avec portrait d'un jeune peintre", is a painting by David Bailly, produced in 1651, which combines the genres of portraiture and still life. It is kept at the Stedelijk Museum in Leiden in the Netherlands. To the left of the painting, a seated young man is looking at us. In one hand, he holds a wand that could be used to show us what is around him, but which is also the painter's attribute, and in the other, the portrait of an older man, in the same position as him, placed on a table. An extinguished candle separates this portrait from two others, one of a woman looking at us, placed on the table, and, behind it, that of a monk looking at him, pinned to the wall against which the table is leaning. On the table, an accumulation of objects: a glass of white wine, sculptures (a Saint Sebastian and a young bacchante), wilted flowers, an hourglass, a flute, coins, an inverted glass, a pearl necklace, a skull, books, a pipe, a dagger, etc. In the upper right-hand corner, the painting is enclosed by the drapery of a hanging. Between the hanging and the young man, soap bubbles float in the air, drawing the eye back to a drawn reproduction of a painting by Frans Hals, Jester Playing the Lute, and a palette, hanging on a corner wall. The painting covers several possible themes. The first concerns the relationship between the young man and the older man whose portrait he is holding [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the classical period. It belongs to the baroque style.

 

Find the full description of Vanitas still life by David Bailly on Wikipedia.