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Jan Jansz. Treck, 'Vanitas Still Life', 1648

About the work

Overview

Jan Jansz. Treck’s complex but sombre picture is a vanitas, a type of still life that holds a moral message. A still life often presents costly objects in an elegant composition to be admired and discussed by the viewer, like the musical instruments, lacquer box, Rhenish jug and scarf made with gold and silver thread here. A vanitas disturbs the serenity, introducing objects with symbolic meaning: life is short, and luxury and greed – the wearing of glamorous garments, drinking wine and smoking – are worthless in the face of inevitable death.

In Treck’s painting, these are a skull, an overturned hourglass, a straw for blowing bubbles that will burst and disappear and a spent pipe, its still-burning embers by its side. Yet while the painting reminds us of the vanity of all human endeavour, it also drives home the point that art – and Treck’s painting – will endure.

Key facts

Details

Full title
Vanitas Still Life
Artist dates
1605/6 - 1652
Date made
1648
Medium and support
oil on wood
Dimensions
90.5 × 78.4 cm
Inscription summary
Signed; Dated
Acquisition credit
Presented by Anthony N. Sturt and his wife Marjorie, 1991
Inventory number
NG6533
Location
Not on display
Collection
Main Collection
Frame
20th-century Replica Frame

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

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