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
- Jan Jansz. Treck
- 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
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the National Gallery’s Annual Report, ‘The National Gallery Report: April 1990 – March 1991’.
Exhibition history
-
2013Vermeer and Music: The Art of Love and LeisureThe National Gallery (London)26 June 2013 - 8 September 2013
Bibliography
-
1991National Gallery, The National Gallery Report: April 1990 - March 1991, London 1991
-
2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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.