Still-life with Musical Instruments
This small painting on copper shows musical instruments, books with well-thumbed pages, an hour-glass, and a clock on a table with a colourful patterned cloth. All the objects relate to the popular still life theme of `vanitas?, which refers to the transience of life. Two stringed instruments, an upturned lute in the background and a small bowed instrument known as a pochette or kit in the foreground, together with an oboe, symbolise the ephemeral nature of music. The hour-glass and clock record time?s passage. At the top left is the artist's monogram. On the other side of the copper sheet is an unfinished painting of a man's head.
