Godfriedt van Bochoutt

[2] Irrespective of their obvious subject matter, most of van Bochoutt's known still-life paintings carry a vanitas meaning.

This meaning is conveyed in these still lifes through the use of stock symbols, which symbolise the transience of life and, in particular, the futility of earthly wealth and distinctions: skulls, extinguished candles, empty glasses, wilting flowers, dead animals, smoking utensils, watches, mirrors, books, dice, playing cards, hourglasses and musical instruments, musical scores, various expensive or exclusive objects such as jewellery and rare shells.

[3][4] These vanitas paintings were informed by a Christian understanding of the world as a temporary place of ephemeral pleasures and torments from which humanity’s only hope of escape had been offered by the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ.

In the Northern Netherlands there was a lot of sympathy for the executed king among the large community of exiled English Royalists and a significant number of Dutch citizens.

[7] An example is the Vanitas still life with a globe, sceptre, a skull crowned with straw by Hendrick Andriessen (c. 1650, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum).