A French Vanitas c1700.

A French Vanitas oil on copper c1700. In its original carved oak frame.

Vanitas is a type of symbolic work of art especially associated with Northern European still life painting in Flanders and the Netherlands in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, though also common in other places and periods. The word is Latin, meaning "emptiness" and loosely translated corresponds to the meaninglessness of earthly life and the transient nature of vanity. Common vanitas symbols include skulls, which are a reminder of the certainty of death.

Dimensions: 270 x 235