Hendrick Andriessen

[6][7] A Vanitas still life with a skull, a broken 'Roemer', a rose, an hour glass, a nautilus shell, a pocket watch and other objects, all on a draped table (At Christie's on 25–26 November 2014, Amsterdam, lot 79) is attributed by Fred G. Meijer (1996) to 'anonymous Antwerp 1630-1640' while Dr. Sam Segal has identified it as a characteristic example of Andriessen's work.

This meaning is conveyed in these still lifes through the use of stock symbols, which reference the transience of things and, in particular, the futility of earthly wealth: a skull, soap bubbles, candles, empty glasses, wilting flowers, insects, smoke, watches, mirrors, books, hourglasses and musical instruments, various expensive or exclusive objects such as jewellery and rare shells.

[10][11] The worldview behind the vanitas paintings was a Christian understanding of the world as a temporary place of fleeting pleasures and sorrows from which mankind could only escape through the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ.

[12] One of Andriessen's best-known works is the Vanitas still life with a globe, sceptre, a skull crowned with straw (c. 1650, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum).

Because of the presence in the still life of a skull, a crown and sceptre and other related objects it is regarded as a reference to the death by decapitation of King Charles I of England.

Andriessen placed on the edge of the table in the painting a letter supposedly written by Death itself telling the viewer how the fate of Charles I exemplified the futility of the pursuit of wealth and power.

To the left of the skull are placed the stock symbols of transience such as wilting flowers, bubbles, an extinguished taper and a luxurious pocket watch waiting to be wound.

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.

An example is the Vanitas still life with a poem on the death of Charles I by Godfriedt van Bochoutt (signed and dated 1668, at Bonhams auction of 23 October 2019, London lot 67TP.

The inclusion in the art gallery's collection of a work by Hendrick Andriessen depicting a vanitas still life (bottom left on the right-hand wall, monogrammed HA) shows that he was at the time considered to be a leading painter in Antwerp.