Developments in science and philosophy during the 17th century drastically changed how humans conceived of their mortality. With 60 works, this exhibition at the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen (27 May–5 November) contends that the theatricality and excess of the European baroque style came as a response to these changes. Motifs such as skulls, butterflies, soap bubbles and extinguished candles can be found in many of the works on display and serve as symbols of the transience life. Works such as Cornelis Norbertus Gysbrechts’ Trompe l’oeil with Studio Wall and Vanitas Still Life (1668) and Otto Marseus van Schrieck’s Still Life with Thistle and Snake (1663) subtly capture the anxieties of the period. Find out more on the SMK’s website.
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Trompe l’oeil with Studio Wall and Vanitas Still Life (1668), Cornelis Norbertus Gysbrechts. Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen
An Old Woman (c. 1632), Gerard van Honthorst. Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen
Flowers (n.d.), Margareta Haverman. Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen
The Judgement of Solomon (c. 1617), Peter Paul Rubens. Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen
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The many faces of Mary Magdalene