The Dutchman Edwaert Collier (1642–1708) worked for a period in Britain. His large still life has obvious echoes of seventeenth-century vanitas paintings from the university town of Leiden. It is quite dry, hard even, in its execution, which reinforces its message. In the middle of the picture–as symbols of the vanity of power and glory–Collier has placed a grey skull, decked in a laurel wreath, on an upside-down golden crown. A sceptre lies alongside a leper clapper to mark the fact of everyone’s equality before death. A lute, sheet music, a violin with a broken string, and heavy books speak to the futility of scholarship and artistic endeavour. The soap bubbles that rise against the dark background refer to the fragility of life. In the hourglass, time is running out, and a torch, just like life itself, lies snuffed out. Collier completes his homily with a scattering of Latin texts—'No one can be called happy before his death.’
Björn Fredlund
