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拍品專文
This delightful painting displays all of the hallmarks of Godfried Schalcken’s mature style, which marries the refinement of Gerrit Dou and the Leiden “fine painters” with a freer handling and more buoyant palette. In the 1680s, when he created this work, Schalcken was celebrated internationally as one of the most accomplished artists of his generation and enjoyed the patronage of King William III, Grand Duke Cosimo II de Medici and the Elector Palatine Johan Wilhem. The composition represents a beautiful winged figure who smiles mischievously while gazing directly at the viewer. Her white chemise has slipped, revealing her bare shoulder as she rests her arm on a terrestrial globe. In her left hand she holds a scallop shell with a soap bubble inside it. A second bubble floats above it, perhaps kept aloft by the heat of the candle held in her right hand, which illuminates the scene.
When this painting was engraved in the 17th century, it was given the title “Vanitas Vanitatum” because of its rich symbolic content. As David Dallas has recognized, however, this allegorical figure is perhaps best identified as Fortune, who alludes to the perils of Vanity in a world where everything is ephemeral (op. cit.): the soap bubbles will soon burst and the candle is already half-burned. Likewise, the cut roses that decorate her diadem also may be read as symbols of transience—one has already wilted. Dallas has further proposed that Schalcken may have intended his painting to be read as a warning against complacency within the Dutch Republic, newly independent from Spain (ibid.). According to this reading, the foundering ship on the rocky seas seen in the background at right as well as the partially draped globe bearing the single inscription “Hispania”, would allude to the political and mercantile decline of the Spanish Empire.
A preparatory drawing in black chalk measuring 29.5 x 26.6 cm. is in the Collection de Grez, Musées Royaux des Beaux Arts, Brussels (Neve, 1913, no. 3221; see T. Beherman, op. cit., Paris, 1988, p. 253, fig. 195a).
When this painting was engraved in the 17th century, it was given the title “Vanitas Vanitatum” because of its rich symbolic content. As David Dallas has recognized, however, this allegorical figure is perhaps best identified as Fortune, who alludes to the perils of Vanity in a world where everything is ephemeral (op. cit.): the soap bubbles will soon burst and the candle is already half-burned. Likewise, the cut roses that decorate her diadem also may be read as symbols of transience—one has already wilted. Dallas has further proposed that Schalcken may have intended his painting to be read as a warning against complacency within the Dutch Republic, newly independent from Spain (ibid.). According to this reading, the foundering ship on the rocky seas seen in the background at right as well as the partially draped globe bearing the single inscription “Hispania”, would allude to the political and mercantile decline of the Spanish Empire.
A preparatory drawing in black chalk measuring 29.5 x 26.6 cm. is in the Collection de Grez, Musées Royaux des Beaux Arts, Brussels (Neve, 1913, no. 3221; see T. Beherman, op. cit., Paris, 1988, p. 253, fig. 195a).