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Allegory of Vanity: Lady with a Mirror
ca. 160013 x 10 in. (33 x 25.4 cm)
Flemish artist
Flanders
Frans van Mieris the Elder
Netherlands (1635 - 1681) Previous attribution
Object Type:
Painting
Medium and Support:
Oil on cradled panel
Credit Line:
Bertha Buswell Bequest
Accession Number:
1955.132
Location: Currently on view
Collection:
Buswell-Hochstetter Collection
This painting has all the elements of the Christian medieval tradition of an allegory of vanity, or the personification of all the temptations and vain pleasures of the world. The painter drew on a wide vocabulary of images to suggest the transience of the material world. In this painting, dressed in fine clothes and bedecked in jewels, the woman seems to be turning away from the mirror, the symbol of vanity. In reality, though, out of the corner of her eye she gazes approvingly at her own reflection. The mirror also represents the idea of false appearances; her jewels symbolize the dangerous allure of wealth. Fresh flowers, beautiful for only a few days, suggest the fleeting nature of beauty; the book on her table refers to earthly rather than spiritual knowledge.
[Gallery label text, 2005]
[Gallery label text, 2005]
Provenance
Bertha Hochstetter (Mrs. Henry) Buswell, Buffalo, NY; her bequest to the Gallery, 1941; lifetime interest held by her brother, Ralph Hochstetter, Buffalo, NY, until his death in 1955, when it passed to the Gallery
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Exhibition List
This object was included in the following exhibitions:
- The Buswell-Hochstetter Collections 11/11/1955 - 11/28/1955
- European Paintings from the Rochester Memorial Art Gallery 1/15/1967 - 9/30/1967
- Contrasts/Comparisons 9/28/1973 - 10/28/1973
- Sitzart: Chair Exhibit Memorial Art Gallery 7/5/1974 - 9/1/1974
- Out of the Drawing Room 7/8/1995 - 9/17/1995
- To be, or not to be: four hundred years of vanitas painting 2/4/2006 - 4/2/2006
- Renaissance Remix: Art & Imagination in 16th-century Europe 6/27/2012 - 6/26/2016
Bibliography
This object has the following bibliographic references:
- Article Title: The November Exhibitions: The Buswell-Hochstetter Collections. Article Scope: Article. Memorial Art Gallery. Gallery Notes. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery, 1935-1995. Volume Number: 21, Issue Number: 2. Issue Date: November-December, 1955.
- Article Scope: Reproduction only. Rochester Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester Handbook. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 1961.
- Article Author: Smith, Virginia Jeffrey. Article Title: Artists and Craftsmen: Intriguing Acquisitions Sampled at Gallery. Article Scope: Article. Rochester Times-Union. Rochester, New York, 1923-1963. Issue Date: November 14, 1955. Page Number: 48
- Rochester Review. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press
- Article Scope: Mention. Elizabeth Brayer. Magnum Opus: The Story of the Memorial Art Gallery, 1913-1988. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery, 1988.
- Article Scope: Entry and reproduction. Raymond J. Kelley, III. To Be, or Not to Be: Four Hundred Years of Vanitas Painting. Flint, MI: Flint Institute of Arts, 2006.
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