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拍品专文
Leonaert Bramer was a prolific 17th-century Dutch painter and draughtsman from Delft. After a meandering journey through France and Italy, he worked for over a decade in Rome, where he was one of the founders of the Bentvueghels group of Netherlandish painters, and became known as the 'Leonardo della Notte' for his predominantly nocturnal paintings. Bramer eventually returned to his hometown in Holland, joined the local Guild of Saint Luke and continued to paint, but also worked on tapestry designs and architectural decorations including murals and frescoes. Only four prints are attributed to him, including the present Allegory of Vanity, which is closely related to his painting of the same title at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
At the top of the triangular composition stands a darkly-clad, singing lute player behind a table. To the right sits a lady with an elaborate coiffure, seen from behind in a lost profile, dressed in a fur coat with a heavy gold chain around her shoulders. She seems to contemplate her reflection in a table mirror. The two figures are surrounded by a chaotic assemblage of various objects: a basket filled with vessels in precious metals lies half-emptied on the table, a gold chain with decorations and medals hangs over the edge of it. On the floor at left lies a cuirass and other parts of a suit of armour, while on the left a smaller table supports an arrangement of string instruments, including two lutes, a viola, a violin with bow, and a bass, as well as a flute and some sheet music. One of the musical manuscripts is inscribed with the word 'VANITAS'.
The moral seems to be that all earthly treasures, beauty, power and glory are transient and futile, yet the meaning of the musician and the instruments remains somewhat ambiguous. Is music just as vain and temporal? Or is the singer - and by implication the artist - making us see the truth of our own futility and thereby attains himself a kind of immortality? (See also lot 4.)
At the top of the triangular composition stands a darkly-clad, singing lute player behind a table. To the right sits a lady with an elaborate coiffure, seen from behind in a lost profile, dressed in a fur coat with a heavy gold chain around her shoulders. She seems to contemplate her reflection in a table mirror. The two figures are surrounded by a chaotic assemblage of various objects: a basket filled with vessels in precious metals lies half-emptied on the table, a gold chain with decorations and medals hangs over the edge of it. On the floor at left lies a cuirass and other parts of a suit of armour, while on the left a smaller table supports an arrangement of string instruments, including two lutes, a viola, a violin with bow, and a bass, as well as a flute and some sheet music. One of the musical manuscripts is inscribed with the word 'VANITAS'.
The moral seems to be that all earthly treasures, beauty, power and glory are transient and futile, yet the meaning of the musician and the instruments remains somewhat ambiguous. Is music just as vain and temporal? Or is the singer - and by implication the artist - making us see the truth of our own futility and thereby attains himself a kind of immortality? (See also lot 4.)