Edward Collier

Still Life with a Volume of Wither’s ‘Emblemes’

1696

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In Tate Britain

Walk Through British Art: 1650

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Artist: Edward Collier active 1662–1708
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 838 × 1079 mm
frame: 1004 × 1242 × 70 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Purchased 1949
Reference: N05916

Display caption

In this still-life painting the musical instruments, wine and jewels represent the fleeting pleasures of life, while the skull and hour-glass symbolise the inevitability of death. The open book shows a brief poem emphasising the theme of mortality. The Latin inscription in the top left corner comes from the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes: ‘Vanity of vanities, all is vanity’. This is why such pictures are known as vanitas paintings. Born in the Netherlands, Collier arrived in England in 1693 to produce still-life paintings like this to sell to the English market. He died in London in 1708.

Gallery label, February 2016

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Features

Still Life with a Volume of Wither’s ‘Emblemes’ 1696: By Edward Collier

Rica Jones

Read technical information about this painting resulting from examination and scientific analysis by conservators and conservation scientists at Tate

Explore

objects(23,302)
- clothing and personal items(5,884)
- - jewellery(96)
- fine arts and music(3,760)
- - instrument, lute(40)
  - instrument, stringed(32)
  - instrument, wind(9)
  - sheet music(41)
  - silverware(4)
- food and drink(980)
- - drink, wine(58)
  - fruit - non-specific(164)
- kitchen(645)
- - glass(155)
  - goblet(34)
- reading, writing, printed matter(5,161)
- - book, Withers, George, ‘Emblemes’(1)
- vessels and containers(2,153)
- - bowl(245)
  - box(187)
people(35,021)
- body(4,877)
- - skull(90)
society(34,829)
- birth to death(1,439)
- - mortality(49)
symbols and personifications(7,190)
- abstract concepts(124)
- - material world - possessions(3)
- birth to death(112)
- - death - skull / skull and crossbones(15)
  - transience - hour glass(2)

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