vanitas painting by harmen steenwijck, c. 1640

I chose Vanitas by Harmen Steenwijck. I really was interested in the different objects he had painted into the painting which is different from other Vanitas that i have seen.Even through to some people it looks like a bunch of objects cluttered around the skull, I feel like this is a sort of harmony between the objects. Like we discussed in class, many of the objects in his painting has a symbolic defintion. Its also had a good amound of light giving an feel that maybe this objects are near a window. Which to me the symbolic meaning is that everything has a end to it but its not a sad end more like a calm maybe even a happy end.

This painting shows that during this time death was almost accepted maybe even welcomed. They may have felt like death has become a everyday thing and now that religon is introduced, it gives death a home so to speak. After you die its an end but a happy end. You would be going somewhere calming and peaceful. Which i also get from the seashell, which comes from the ocean which is calming to me. Overall I really like the dark/light painting. Death isnt depicted in this as something dark or how some may classified as "demonic" but nor it is depicted as a deption of what heaven would look like. I really like it.