Art Reading Scripture

Vanitas 1660 N. L. Peschier Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. Ecclesiastes 1:2

Paintings with the theme "Vanitas" were popular with artists. "Vanitas" works intend to cause the viewer to pause and reflect on life; what matters, and that it is temporary. We will all die, so along the way what endures, what remains. A central image of all vanitas art is a skull, the seat of mind, thought, confidence and doubts, hopes and fears, and wonder about what life means, if anything. Vanitas puts things, literally "things"(possessions, accomplishments, values) into perspective. Vanity points towards pride and ego-centrism. "Your so vain, you probably think this song is about you." Carly Simon. Vanitas asks us to pause before life with humility to consider the things we value. All these things can and will be left behind. So along the way we consider their significance.

Vanitas is a kind of "still life" painting. Still Life art arranges everyday objects into a scene to highlight details, colors, textures and everyday beauties. Often they include flowers, food, table settings, objects of other significance, but not a person. Still Life paintings concentrate of use of light and arrangement of objects. Still life art is decorative rather than meaningful as to our place or purpose in the world. One might hear in the style that these are things that still represent life, or that still (pause) for a moment the life we live.

Vanitas stills life using arrangements of particular objects. This particular painting includes a sack of coins, a musical score, books, letters, a set of quills, a sealing wax set, and a lantern whose candle has blown out or is unlit. The imagery suggests that what was significant to the painter was writing, communicating with others and music. The skull and the unlit candle announce that these things are over. Life and light have been stilled and silenced. There are others things in the painting as well. Other Vanitas paintings I have seen include things like a tipped over empty goblet, a watch, a key, or a quill. A Vanitas sculpture I saw in Denmark put a coin in the skulls mouth, jeweled necklaces hanging from one ear, and a sack of dice sitting below the other. The sculpture sat on a base, the legs underneath it were bones.

The Bible invites us to reflect on the meaning of life and what matters. Ecclesiastes likely inspired this type of art. The teacher considers life whether it has any meaning at all, whether it is simply a vain existence. "Remember your creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years draw near when you will say, 'I have no pleasure in them'; ... because all must go to their eternal home, and the mourners will go about the streets; before the silver cord is snapped; and the golden bowl, and the pitcher is broken at the fountain, and the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath returns to God who gave it. Vanity of vanity, says the Teacher; all is vanity."

An exercise: If you were to compose a Vanitas, what would you include in it. What things define your life? What things will you leave behind? What things contribute to your pride of accomplishment, your vanity? How do you consider these things with humility? My Vanitas might include photo albums of my family I make each year, a golf club and ball, my SNAP card, running shoes, some dirt and a plant from the garden, rocks, a clergy collar, stole and cross, some art in the background, and a skull. These are things of my life, some of which are gone and missed. I cherish them even as acknowledge the vanity by which I value them. Certainly faith, hope and love, God and something More remains what finally matters. Yet along the way I will still gaze on the vanities of my life and this world, and consider my life and mortality.

Keep the faith. Say your prayers. Love like Jesus.

Pastor Tim Bauer