This painting is an unusually large and splendid example of the vanitas still life. Vanitas, in Latin, refers to the “vanity” of all worldly things, such as riches, beauty, pastimes, learning, and the arts. In this painting by David Bailly, a Dutch artist who worked in Leiden, where Rembrandt was born, the skull in the center reminds us of the vanity of music (the lute and flute), the visual arts (the palette and brushes and the small sculpture), the pleasures of the flesh (dice, cards, pipe, and tobacco), learning (books), and natural beauty (flowers). The hourglass, sundial, and guttering candle all emphasize the passing of time; the rising bubbles epitomize the fragility of life; the barely legible letter beneath the skull refers to death and war; and the black servant, elegantly dressed and with a gold chain (symbolizing loyalty) around his neck, is one more accouterment of a wealth that must inevitably pass away. The servant holds a miniature portrait of the (unknown) patron who commissioned the painting, appropriately small, to indicate his lack of pretension and rejection of ostentation.