A skull atop a jewelled crown, an astrological globe, an hourglass, a book, a shell with soap bubbles and an engraved portrait of the Emperor Augustus on a draped table - a vanitas

Though the majority of Collier’s vanitas still-lifes were produced during his residence in Leiden (1667-1693), this work dates to his early years in Haarlem and shows the possible influence of David Bailly and Vincent Laurensz. van der Vinne. Through a familiar grammar of visual symbols, Collier invites the viewer to decipher the picture’s hidden messages: while the human skull, bubbles and hourglass act as a reminder of the inevitability of death, the nearby celestial globe and ivy signify the resurrection and eternal life.

Dr. Fred G. Meijer has endorsed the attribution to Collier and suggests a dating close to Collier’s variant of this composition in the Heinz collection in Washington, which is signed and dated ‘E.kolier. 1663’ (I. Bergström and A.K. Wheelock, Still Lifes of the Golden Age: Northern European Paintings from the Heinz family collection, exhibition catalogue, Washington, DC, 1989, p.102, no. 11.).