BAILLY, David

Dutch painter, pupil of his father, Pieter Bailly from Antwerp and the copper engraver Jacques de Gheyn. He studied portraiture with Cornelis van der Voort in Amsterdam. He made numerous trips abroad and worked for many princes including the Duke of Brunswick. Apart from portraits, he painted still-lifes such as the famous vanitasGLOSSARYA painting (or element in painting) that acts as a reminder of the inevitabiliry of death, and the pointlessness of earthly ambitions and achievements. Common vanitas-symbols include skulls, guttering candles, hour-glasses and clocks, overturned vessels, and even flowers (which will soon fade). The vanitas theme became popular during the Baroque, with the vanitas still life flourishing in Dutch art. painting of 1651. Bailly taught his nephews Harmen and Pieter Steenwijck.