Vanitas Still life with Books, a Globe, a Skull, a Violin and a Fan by Jan Davidsz. de Heem

Vanitas is a fascinating sub-genre of still life painting, where the artist chooses subjects that have high symbolic value. In this sense 'vanitas', or vanity, is not meant as we use the word in our daily language, but rather as 'meaningless' or 'pointless'. The arrangements are meant to serve as a reminder of our mortality, and as a comment on the meaninglessness of our worldly pursuits. In this painting by de Heem the skull represents our mortality, the violin points to entertainment, the books to human knowledge and learning, the fan to vanity (in the sense we use the word in our daily language), and the globe to the expansive nature of the human race.