DAY 205

A PICTURE’S WORTH 1000 200 WORDS

Vanitas

WILLEM CLAESZ. HEDA, 1628

This rather ominous work by Dutch artist Willem Claesz. Heda belongs to a genre of symbolic still life paintings popular in the 1500s–1600s. These paintings, of which Heda’s work serves as an example, were used to communicate essential lessons about life’s brevity and the emptiness of earthly pleasures and possessions. In fact, vanitas is a Latin word that translates to “emptiness.” A Biblical passage from the book of Ecclesiastes was often associated with these paintings, most of which were titled Vanitas: “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity,” or as a more modern translation bluntly declares, “Everything is meaningless...completely meaningless!”

Heda’s painting depicts the ephemeral nature of life, and the objects he has chosen for his spiritual statement serve as a symbolic vocabulary. The most obvious symbol is the skull, which of course reminds us that at some point we all must face death. The dying coals and the overturned wine glass reinforce this message.

Few modern viewers are likely to find Vanitas very inviting, but the potency of its visual symbolism proves Heda’s still life subjects to be an ideal vehicle for his message. —DDG