VINCENT LAURENSZ. VAN DER VINNE I | A VANITAS STILL LIFE WITH A CRYSTAL BALL REFLECTING AN IMAGE OF THE ARTIST AT HIS EASEL, A BOOK, A LUTE, A FLAG, A CHIPPED ROEMER, A FLUTE, A BATON, AN HOURGLASS, AN OPEN BOOK SHOWING A VIEW OF ANTWERP, AN ENGRAVED PORTRAIT OF KING CHARLES I, AND A CHARTER WITH A SEAL ON A PARTIALLY DRAPED TABLE BEFORE A PILLAR

Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 24 April 1998, lot 60 (reproduced on the front cover);

There acquired for $94,229.

Born in Haarlem, Vincent Laurensz. van der Vinne became a pupil of Frans Hals in 1647, joining the painter's guild two years later. His repertoire included a variety of subjects, though he is best known for his vanitas still lifes and landscape paintings. The artist included a self-portrait, reflected prominently in the orb, at almost the center of the composition. The inclusion of the artist's own likeness adheres to the long-standing tradition in Dutch painting of inserting self-portraits into reflective surfaces such as glasses or pewter jug lids, a motif similarly employed by Clara Peeters, Jan Davidsz. de Heem and Willem Claesz. Heda, among others. The image of the artist, reflected in the surface of so delicate a medium as glass, is perhaps symbolic of the fragility of human life. The orb recalls the image of the soap bubble, itself a common motif in still life painting, which is employed again as a memento mori, representative of the fleeting transitory nature of life.

Another version of this composition, with a bust trompe-l’oeil of a turbaned figure rather than of King Charles I, can be found in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow (inv. no. F-2005, fig. 1). The Pushkin painting is of smaller dimensions, measuring 64 by 49 cm., and depicts the objects from a closer perspective, omitting the tip of the flag and pommel of the sword at the right side and terminating immediately below the seal on the lower edge.