Trompe l'oeil

In 17th-century Flemish and Dutch paintings still-lifes, kitchen scenes and even flower pieces often had a moral undertone in that they encouraged the viewer to reflect on the notion of transience. In some cases, they are out-and-out vanitas paintings, in which each object is intended as a reference to the vanity and transience of earthly existence, with its pleasures and concerns. The 'vanitas vanitatum' - vanity of vanities - idea provides the key to several remarkable still-lifes by Cornelis Norbert Gijsbrechts. This artist worked most notably for the Danish court, and specialized in trompe-l'oeil or illusionistic paintings. His vanitas still-lifes contain a collection of objects symbolizing earthly pursuits and death. The fact that the painting itself is an illusion of reality further emphasizes the work's deeper meaning - the futility of earthly existence.