Woman seated at a table (vanitas)
Pot, Hendrik Gerritsz. (ca. 1585-1657)
Dou, Gerrit (1613-1675) (formerly attributed to)
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
[Museum inv. no.: 48.1165]
Item location
Description
This vanitas painting includes images of open, oblong format music books and a partially visible small violin-like instrument, possibly a kit (pochette).Commentary from museum website:
Long attributed to Gerrit Dou, this painting is the work of Hendrick Pot, a Haarlem painter best known for his guardroom scenes, elegant companies, and small-scale portraits. The sheet posted on the back wall—the key to the painting's meaning—is inscribed "vanitas." Vanitas paintings suggest the fragility of life and the inevitability of death through their painted details. Here, a skull, instruments (referencing the transitory strains of music), gold and jewelry (transitory earthly goods), games, books (emblems of scholarship), and symbols of time (hourglass, extinguished candle) surround a woman who reminds the viewer to meditate on death.
Iconclass
11R7'Vanitas' symbols
11R61
person(s) sitting among objects forming a 'Vanitas' still life
48C7311
violin, fiddle
48C741
printed edition of musical score
Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)
Kit [3571]Musical works
illegible music notationRIdIM images
