A Vanitas Still Life with a Flag, Candlestick, Musical Instruments, Books, Writing Paraphernalia, Globes, and Hourglass1662
Collier was well known in his own time for his still lifes, which replicated in intricate detail actual maps and globes. More about this work
About this work
Collier was well known in his own time for his still lifes, which replicated in intricate detail actual maps and globes. Here, he reproduced a portion of Frederik de Wit’s 1660 map of the Americas and Jodocus Hondius’s terrestrial globe with a view of Mexico, both of which allude to the Dutch Republic’s international trade networks and the ambition to possess the world through cartographic knowledge.
Text from the Art Institute of Chicago.
What you’re looking at
A work made of oil on canvas.
Description from the Art Institute of Chicago.
How it was made
- Oil paint
- Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.
Edwaert Collier
Dutch, 1642–1708
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Art Institute of Chicago has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 2020.317
- Credit
- Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
- Type
- Painting
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
