The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) and the Peace of Westphalia is mirrored in many ways in contemporary art and literature. Painters were commissioned to paint group portraits of the peace delegates, battle scenes, and peace allegories on a large scale. The suggestion has also been made that a very special and sophisticated theme in painting, the vanitas still life, evolved as a result of war and pestilence. The genre appeared simultanously in many European countries and its flowering coincided with the period of the war. It was only natural, Ingvar Bergström says in his book on the Dutch Still Life, that poets and artists in an age so marked by the power of death should try to give expression to ancient symbols of decay. [1] The fact that many Dutch vanitas still lifes appear in Leiden in the latter half of the twenties he connects to the ravages of plague which in 1624-25 caused the death of 9.897 people and in 1635 as much as 14.582 people in Leiden only. To what degree the Thirty Years War has influenced the vanitas pictures is however never fully discussed. Having gone trough the rich Dutch vanitas material as well as other schools treating the theme my impression is that war and plague plays only a minor part in the developement of the genre as such. By interpreting the seventeenth century vanitas still lifes as expression of the horrors of war we might be influenced by happenings of today or the impact made by Goya and other painters from the romantic period. Lets instead begin by looking at the historical situation and the different types of vanitas still lifes emerging in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century in Holland, Flanders, Germany, France, Italy and Spain - countries then separated from one another not only by their political boundaries but also because of religious differences, antagonistic political systems, divergent social structures and even conflicting views on the purpose of life and death. New schools of painting evolved either national or local, each with its own characteristics.

Although independent vanitas still lifes exist similtaniously in protestant as well as catholic countries they are generally referred to as beeing a calvinistic fenomenon with its birthplace in Leiden around 1600. Artists of the Leiden school such as Davis Bailly (1584-1657), Pieter Potter (1597-1652), Harmen Steenwyck (1612- after 1664) and Pieter Steenwyck (1615- after 1654) created a special kind of pictures where symbols of earthly life, taken from the realms of art, learning and science were contrasted with those of death in the form of skulls, half-burned-out candles and hourglasses. The fateful message and the monochrome colour scale often impart a melancholic mood to these pictures. According to Bergström the Dutch painters were above all inspired by the strict moral precepts of the Calvinists and they did their best to make the contemporary beholder reflect on these things and draw his attention to the transcience of life and the vanity of all things. [2] It has also been pointed out by him and other art historians treating vanitas themes that the pictures have their counterparts in literature and poetry and in religious texts; the main sources of inspiration for both contemporary texts and pictures beeing the well known Biblical quotations: "Vanity of vanities, sayeth the Preacher, vanity of vanities; All is vanity." (Eccl 1:2) "As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the fields, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place therof shall know it no more." (Psalms 103: 15-16).

Emblematic sources such as Roemer Vissher's "Sinnepoppen" or Cats "Sinne-en Minnebeelden" of 1627 providing commentaries and explanations, could also be used. The artist could ensure that these paintings were understood by his audience by adding an explanatory text to the painting. These texts make it clear that vanitas still lifes were not only concerned with the deplorable fact of life's transience; they also pointed a moral. Many pictures warn against the pride brought on by learning. "De wetenshap tot hoogmoedt drifft" wrote Bredero in his tragedy "Roderick ende Alphonsus". Dutch contemporary prose, poetry and drama by Cats, Huygens, Vondel, Bredero and Westerbaen were employed in an allegorical fashion where the moralizing meaning was implied. Bergström sees the vanitas pictures as a very close parallel. The objects taken from the liberal arts, sciences, prosperity, power and pleasure are not only doomed to perish but also constitute a warning against pride in knowledge and the sinfulness to which art, power and pleasure can lead. However, on a closer study, some Dutch vanitas pictures are lacking this moralistic character conveying instead a very positive attitude to the arts and sciences. A painting by David de Heem (1606-1683/84) in Pommersfelden depicts a laurated skull near a turned-over antic head and a renaissance marble sculpture of a child (fig. 1) The text in the foreground saying: "Non omnis moriar" (I am not completely dying) is taken from Horatius "Exegi monumentum" (Carmina 3.30.6). The motto implies that the human spirit survives after death. The broken ear of corn surrounding the skull points to mortality but could also mean eternal life. [3] The laurel stands for the fame man can acquire among posterity. Man is mortal but his deeds together with art and literature lives forever.

Renunciation of the world was nothing new in the 17th century and cannot be attributed solely to the influence of calvinism. It is an essential characteristic of some antique philosophers and can be traced in Christianity from the time of Augustinus and onwards. In an article discussing a vanitas picture by Jacques de Gheyn B.A. Heezen-Stoll raises the question as to whether the rising Neo-Stoicism of the late 16th century and the wide dissemination of its ideas in the Netherlands may not have played an important role in the creation of the vanitas genre. [4] He believes that the idea of vanitas vanitatem is essentially a stoic one and not an expression of Christian forsaking of the world. Stoicism teaches that mans striving for happiness on this earth is really a striving for virtue. Books and texts in vanitas still lifes, as in the example mentioned above, could point to knowledge and wisdom- not futility. Instruments, sculptures and similar symbols in the still lifes could have a very special meaning. The parts played by arts and science in education is quite clear from the antique authors. Those who practise the liberal arts are always represented on a higher level than those who follow their fortune. While stoic texts show how one can attain the highest virtue step by step the vanitas still lifes similarly depict the objects that can help or hinder. An interpretation of Dutch vanitas still lifes from the first quarter of the 17th century according to stoic humanistic ideals has also been discussed by Jan Bialostocki. [5] The emblem of man as Homo Bulla - a soap bubble, so often appearing in 17th century vanitas still lifes, was used already by the antique authors Varro and Lucian and reemerged in Erasmus' collection of proverbs "Adagia", published in 1572. [6] The neostoicists around 1600 believed in man's power of self-improvement. Maybe it is along these lines we should interprete the early vanitas still lifes. By contemplating such a picture man could educate his mind and learn about human virtues. It was later, after the 1630es, that the more moralizing aspect of vanity symbols prevailed. It was then books were shown as tattered and instrument missing their strings.

The fact that vanitas still lifes appear in such a number in Leiden was certainly due to the special esteem in which the humanities were held in this univerisity city. Philosophy as well as emblematics was studied here. A picture from 1603 by Jaques de Gheyn (1565-1629) in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, usually referred to as the earliest of its kind, reflects the typical Leiden humanism. [7] Over the skull appears a large soap bubble in the center of which several small objects can be found - a royal crown, a caducé, a heart stung by an arrow, a sceptre and dice and a fallen glas - symbols of power, luck, luxury, pleasure - everything vanity. In the upper corners of the picture Demokritus is laughing and Herakleitos weeping to this world which is just a mirror - a shimmering soap bubble that will brake any minute.

De Gheyns painting could also be regarded as a link to the Memento Moris found at the back of late Medieval altar pieces, thus a possible explanation for the birth of the free-standing vanitas still life. The oldest known example is on the back of an altar piece by Rogier van der Weyden in the Louvre from 1450. [8] Another often mentioned source for the vanitas theme is early Renaissance depictions of St Jerome in his study. [9] St Jerome, the most erudite of the Fathers of the Church, could easily be identified with the humanist ideals of the period. To the men of the Counter-reformation especially, St Jerome was the ideal figure. He was shown in his chamber, together with a book and a skull- attributes associated with erudition, contemplation and mortality. The objects arranged on a table in front of the scholar could, if isolated become a still life in their own right. An early vanitas still life by Pieter Potter (fig. 2) now in the Lund University Art Collection, comes very close in content to the St Jerome motif. It is not hard to imagine the Church Father sitting at this table, where the skull figures prominently among books, hourglass, candlestick and writing impliments. The books are in some disorder, as if the owner had left them open in a virtually desperate search for the meaning of life. In the top left-hand corner we see a soap bubble in a shell, "homo bulla", the transience of the moment - epitomising the fragility of human existence.

A still life with astronomical instruments (fig. 3) by the leideninfluenced Swedish painter Christian Thum has a clear connection to a painting by the same artist depicting a hermit in the desert. [10] In the painting a number of shining brass instruments are displayed - an astronomical telescope, a quadrant, a measuring tape, a ruler, an astronomical globe, books and a laurel-crowned skull, all arranged on a green velvet cloth against a dark background. The bringing together of so many symbols of science could, as viewed by contemporaries, be a warning against academic pride. The ominous message is made still more distinct by the instruments in this particular picture being so closely bound up with the science of the heavenly bodies and of measuring the relations between them. Not even with these measurements, the picture seems to be telling us, can we transcend the terrestrial. The ultimate secrets evade us and not even the learned are exempt from deacy, a point emphasized by the laurel-crowned skull. A burned-out candle in a small brass candle-stick is perhaps intended to testify to the ease with which our feeble light can be distinguished. But another interpretation of this picture is also possible. The little cherub forming the foot of the candlestick is holding a wreath and an olive branch in his hand. Both are symbols of victory, which together with the laurel-crowned skull could express a hope of eternal life trough science. Life passes but science endures. [11]

Vanitas still lifes could also be used as portraits of individuals. The Museum de Lakenhal in Leiden owns Pieter Steenwyck's Allegory of Admiral Tromp (fig.4), the hero who died in the naval battle at Scheveningen in 1653. The picture includes a printed portrait of the admiral and Anthonius Thysius oratio funebris, printed the same year. The large nautilus shell alludes to the admiral as a seaman. The meaning of the still life could be double. The laurel indicates that the renoun of this man and his deeds reach far beyond his actual death. Another possible interpretation is conveyed by the macabre putting together of the skull and the feathered bereet, perhaps meant to be a warning against earthly pride and vanity.

A contradiction of the same kind seems to pervade some vanitas pictures with symbols of war. Pictures with war trophees were made by Gerhard van Steenwijk and Willem de Poorter (1608- 1648). [12] De Poorter, who was a pupil of Rembrandt in Leiden, employed groups of weapons and pieces of armour in two similar vanitas still lifes in Rotterdam and Braunschweig (fig. 6) Aestetically he was fascinated by the shining and finely wrought weapons and armour which were among the models in Rembrandts studio. Rembrandt used them himself for still-life details. [13] In De Poorters paintings they seem to have a double meaning. He used them as a kind of negativ emblem of warlike bravery and heroism. The Rotterdam painting includes among other things a saddle, a coffer and a banner. In the background is a lance placed against a sarcophagus on the lid of which can be seen a skeleton intended to remind us of the emptiness of power and glory. To heighten its suggestiveness the scene is set in a dark and shadowy grotto. The Braunschweig painting shows details of armour, weapons and a skull in the foreground, and behind them a banner, a crown and a scepter. [14]

The symbolism of de Poorters painting can be compaired to an emblem of a sarcophagus with a crown and a sceptre and the motto: "Hoc solum super est" (Only this will be left) depicted in Diego De Saavedra Fajardos treatise of political devices for the use of a prince, commissioned by the spanish king on the eve of the peace negotiations in Münster. [15]

The Dutch artist Leonard Bramer (1596-1674) was dealing in an allegorical form with war symbolism. He is famous for his small genre scenes on plate depicting soldiers but in the 1640es he also painted two intriguing allegories, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Wienna. [16] The paintings are obviously pendants each with two main figures oposing each other. In the Allegory of Vanity (fig.7) a young man is playing a lute and in front of him a woman is seated in front of a mirror, a commentary to vanity. Other objects included in the scene such as the golden chains, the costly vessels, the musical instruments are well known references to wordly pleasures. In the Allegory of transcience, (fig.8) an old man is focusing on a piece of paper with the text: memento mori. In front of him a skeleton is meditating over a skull. The message is evidently the same as in contemporary devotional manuals, that man by meditating over death should be prevented from pride and egocentricity. On the table between the two figures in the latter painting appears heaps of armoury symbolizing the futility of worldly power.

Of a more sinister character is a vanitas picture by Abraham van der Schoor (fig.9), signed in Leiden 1670. In the center of the picture are heaped six skulls, three bones and a lower jaw. The artist seems to have studied these objects with a scientific interest for the human species. The same focus on natural science in vanitas pictures can be found in other artistic centra. The flemish painter Roelandt de Savery (1576-1639), employed by Rudolph II in Prague, painted around 1610 an original still life (fig.10) with dead and living animals. [17] The somewhat macabre vanitas iconography in this picture is however not a result of religious or didactic propaganda but rather reflecting the scientific naturalism practised at Rudolph's court. Many of his artists were employed to describe and illustrate his collection of rare and unusual species of flowers, herbs, insects and animals. With almost graphic precision Savery has depicted exotic birds and different animal skeletons. A small frog sits on a horse skull. This interest for the anatomy of animals he shared with other artists often employed to illustrate scientific books on the subject. Heinrich Hondius made in the 1620es a series of illustrations in "Anatomia- Memento Mori", published by Jan Claesz. Visscher in Amsterdam 1652. [18] The human skull crowned with bones next to the animals in Savery's painting is a strange and original invention. Could this be an allusion to the emperor and his wordly power?

Of a rather grim character is an anonymous Vanitas, probably of German school, in Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (fig. 11). A symmetrically placed golden goblet is surrounded by several bones and a skull. The smoking wick of a torch reminds us of the verse from the Psalms 102:3: "for my days are consumed like smoke." The inescapable flight of time is symbolized by the hourglass.

The history of still life painting in Germany is intimately connected to the political situation in Middle Europe at the end of the 16th century. Many painters from the Southern Netherlands had fled to German cities for religious reasons. Daniel Soreau ( - ) formed a school in Hanau where his foremost pupil Sebastien Stoskopf (1597-1657) took over after the masters death in 1619. The Musée des Beaux-Arts Strassbourg owns an interesting vanitas still life by the master painted 1641 in the midst of the thirty years war when Elsass was plundered (fig. 12). At a slate in the background of the painting is written with chalk: "Kunst, Reichtum, Macht und Kühnheit stirbert. / Die Welt und all ihr thuns verdirbert / Ein ewiges komt nach dieser Zeit / Ihr thoren, flieht die Eitelkeit"

To the left of this text three golden cupolas represent abundant luxiory, whereas a bottle of "eau de vie" in the middle could be a sign of immortality, the water as an allusion of the heavenly paradise. Books and a sheet of music are arranged in a pile crowned by a skull. The lute together with the Callot-print of a comedian represent the liberal arts. Over the globe we can see a helmet and gloves representing the war and its vain glory.

Vanitas still lifes in France seems to have developed at the same time and independently of the Dutch and German. Painters like Philippe de Champaigne, Madeleine Boulogne, and the artists of the Saint Germain de Prés group in Paris made very simple and matter-of-fact arrangements. Fabrice Faré has shown how the French tradition has to do with human conditions taking its symbolism from emblematic and philosophical sources. [19] The vanitas theme was developed as well by artists belonging to the protestant community in Paris as artists connected to a very special branch of catholicism, the jansenism. The Jansenists with their centre in Port-Royal outside Versailles occupied themselfs with translation and dissemination of the texts of the founding fathers. A vanitas attributed to Philippe de Champaigne comes very close to the austerity of the jansenists. It is almost emblematic in its simplicity- Life is represented by a flower, Death by a skull and Time by an hourglass. [20] The skull is confronting the spectator. Man was supposed to look into its hollow eyes asking all sorts of questions about life and its meaning, the same kind of philosphical questions being nourished by Pascal in "Les Pensée". A Vanitas by Jacques Linard (1600-1645) has a text that sums up the philosophical attitude of the French vanitas tradition: "Apprens à bien mourir-Cherce la vérité / Tout le reste n'est rien que pure vanité.? [21]

De Champaignes vanitas is very similar to an unsually small painting from about 1618-20 by the italian artist Guercino (1591-1666) whom Champaigne much admired. [22] Guercinos painting, isolated in is oeuvre, seems to be derived from his own Et in Arcadia ego 1618 where a similar composition with a skull played a prominent role. [23] Vanitas is not a common theme in the italian still life tradition. Salvator Rosa painted a "Singing skull" for the lid of a harpsicord. Much later Guiseppe Maria Crespi took up the theme, but then we have left the period we are dealing with.

The subject of vanitas and the depiction of the transitory in life has always been close to the heart of Spanish artists. Seventeenth century artists such as Antonio da Pereda (1608/11- 1678), Juan de Valdes-Leal (1622-90) and Andrés Deleito (active 1680) managed to express themselves more directly and openly in their rendering of macabre subjects than most painters of other schools. While the Dutch vanitas still lifes are puritan the Spanish are dramatical. Since the medivael tradition still linger in Spain the vanitas pictures are closely connected to the mortality of man whereas the Northern schools deal more with abstract ideas. During the period immediately following the thirty years war we can, however, in Spain find vanitas pictures with a political message. It was a time when most countries were completely ruined by the enormous expenses of the war. A painting by Pereda called The Disillusionement of the world (El desengano del mundo) in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (fig. 13), is full of allusions to the problems of imperial power. Reflected in the cameo which the angel is holding out towards the viewer is a portrait of the king of Spain and the emperor of Germany, Charles Vth, who abdicated from his thrones in 1556. He is being held above a globe showing the extent of the Habsburg empire. When the painting was made it was nearly a century since his death. Like the symbolic remnants of the human existence at the table - a pile of skulls - his empire turned out to be equally shortlived. "Nil omne" - everything is nothing - was therefor the artists message, written above the sandglass. Pereda painted his vanitas at a time when Spain had already suffered the secession of Portugal and Catalonia 1640, and in the Peace of Westsphalia 1648 had lost its hegemony after a hopeless fight in the war of Independence of the Low countries. The 1640s were also a decade of famine, culminating in the great plague of 1648-49, in which thousands of Spaniards perished.

A Spanish Still life of books in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin (fig. 14) can be connected to the humanistic tradition in the Netherlands. It is not quite clear how this picture was meant to be understood by the contemporary viewer. Is it a celebration of the humanistic ideals or is it simply a vanitas picture. The message seems to be contradictory. The desire to read grew considerably among large sections of the population in Europe at the beginning of the century. Not only were more titles published but the production figures of the individual works grew rapidly. A tendency towards secularization and a decrease in the production of religious literature irritated many conservative theologians and humanists who came to regard books as useless and superfluos luxury. They were instead used as symbols of vanity. Human knowledge and experience were, as we have seen, regarded as transitory.

The dual message conveyed by 17th century vanitas still lifes can be difficult for a latter-day beholder to understand.

For the luxury and opulence the artists warns against are all around us. The nautilus shell made into a luxurious and costly cupola in Pieter Claesz Vanitas in the Landesmuseum, Münster (fig. 15) is contrasted with a skull. The stern Calvinist texts recommends a complete renunciation of wordly things, while the vanitas pictures, their message not withstanding, are meant to be enjoyed as works of art. What is more they fetched high prices and they were put up in sumptous burgher homes. Their owners certainly had no intention of renouncing the things of this world. According to a theory that Norman Bryson has put forward in his book "Looking at the overlooked" the seventeenth century viewer had no problem whatsoever with this contradictory message. [24] The paradox was deliberate and the conflict between world rejection and wordly ensnarement the governing principal of these works. While earlier in catholic faith as Ignatius of Loyola saw it pictures could substitute texts. For him the image was the crucial instrument for galvanising the soals force. He wanted the people to use their senses. Calvins loyalty is to the word. He insisted that the subject should read the texts to understand. Images get in the way of contact between reading subject and sacred world. When allegorical messages are present in vanitas pictures they are meant to be coded. The beholder had to use his intellect or a symbol dictionary. By using his senses he was of course able to enjoy things of this world but he could not really get beyond them.

Among art historians there has lately been a debate as to whether the essential meaning of Dutch still lifes and genre pictures is just what can be seen on the carefully worked out surfaces or whether the apparent realism is packed with allusions to emblems, proverbs and the like which are intrinsic to meaning. [25] It seems to me, however, that Anne Lowenthal in her comment to that debate has absolutely right in assuming that the artists have presented us with a choice. [26] There is nothing to prevent us from enjoying the pictures for their pure visual appeal at the same time as we look into the meaning of all the objects assembled.

Returning to the 17th century vanitas pictures, it is obvious that the pictorial vision after the middle of the century will prevail over the emblematic. The severe warning of the vanitas themes seems to dissolve and in larger compositions you can find an abundance of vanity allegories and emblems crammed into the picture. A vanitas picture with armory signed 1665 by Cornelis Brisé (1622- ) is dominated by the elegance and texture of more enjoyable items (fig. 16). An elegantly carved limewood frame signed 1668 by the Alkmaar sculptor Johan Kinnema shows a skull and other vanitas symbols among attributes associated with war and shipping (fig.17). [27] Here the vanitas emblems have become purely decorative elements.

Having discussed the vanitas still life and its developement in Europe during the first half of the seventeenth century we can conclude that the theme, although it existed simultaniously with the war, was not aimed to moralize over its disaster. The people commissioning these works were in fact those who gained by the war. In decorating their homes with vanitas pictures their primary ambition was certainly to demonstrate a classical education.

FOOTNOTES