This mortal shell - Art Depot 1

A selection of works from the SCHUNCK art collection that either directly or through association relate to important themes from the Vanitas tradition in painting.

Vanitas as a Theme

In the early 17th century, the Vanitas tradition emerged in painting in the Netherlands: still life paintings of objects symbolizing the transience of beauty, worldly achievements and pleasures, and the inevitability of death. Think of depictions of skulls, wilting flowers, hourglasses, mirrors, soap bubbles, extinguished candles, or physical decay. The Vanitas theme also served as a religiously motivated warning: vanity, temporality, and earthly life are fleeting and meaningless; one should better strive for eternal life after death. After all, our mortal shell, or body, decays and dies.

Still Life

Marjolein Rothman and Tim Ayres place their works titled Vanitas directly in this painting tradition. In the paintings and watercolors of Marc Mulders, dead animals appear as still lifes. Not only does Otto B. de Kat's still life align with this theme, but the 'dancing' Pyjama People with a skull by Troy Lovegates also fit within the Vanitas theme. The reference to the physical body is evident in the works of Natasja Kensmil, Marlene Dumas, Aline Thomassen, Machiel van Soest, and Erik Franssen, while the decay of this shell takes center stage in Portrait of a Sick Person by Aad de Haas. The successive self-portraits of Philip Akkerman show change and aging over the years. After all, for each of us, "We Don’t Live Forever Anyway."