Still Life with Skull & Writing Quill by Claesz in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2019

Still Life with a Skull and a Writing Quill
1628


Object Details

Artist: Pieter Claesz (Dutch, Berchem? 1596/97–1660 Haarlem)

Date: 1628

Medium: Oil on wood

Dimensions: 9 1/2 x 14 1/8 in. (24.1 x 35.9 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1949

Accession Number: 49.107


In this still life, close observation and realistic detail operate in tension with explicit symbolism. The toppled glass, gap-toothed skull, and guttering wick of an oil lamp all serve as stark symbols of life’s brevity. Working with a limited palette of grays and browns, Claesz carefully describes the surfaces of these unsettling objects. By arranging them on a pitted stone ledge, the artist connects the picture’s space to our own, making the message all the more compelling.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/435904