Allegory of vanity

Molenaer, Jan Miense (ca. 1610-1668)


Item type:
painting
Date of creation:
1633
Height:
102.0 cm  (40 3/16 in.)
Width:
127.0 cm  (50 in.)
Technique / Medium:
oil on canvas

    Item location

  • Toledo Museum of Art (Ohio)
    [Museum inv. no.: 1975.21]Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Description

Many of the individual objects in this painting carry specific associations with the vanitas theme. In addition to a virginal, Molenaer includes an array of musical instruments on the back wall (from left to right: cittern, violin, shawm, lute, recorder, transverse flute, and a five-string violoncello).

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Virginal [2257]
Lute [3394]
Violin [3573] (with bow)
Violoncello [3582] (5 strings)
Recorder [4039]
Transverse flute [4093]
Shawm [4258]
Cittern [3106]

RIdIM images


Image URLs

image link 1
RKD image
image link 2

Bibliographic references

Ember, Ildikó. Music in painting: Music as a symbol in Renaissance and Baroque painting. Trans. by Mary and András Boros-Kazai (Budapest: Corvina, 1984) plate 40. ISBN 9631317234. RILM 1984-6813.

RIdIM record id

3530