French School of the 17th century.
"Vanitas".
Watercolour on parchment.
Measurements: 13 x 10,5 cm (total).
This work is a representation of vanitas, in this case a woman with a skull in her hands. Writing on the back. It is bordered with a green silk ribbon.
These works are called codex miniae, which were handwritten and illustrated books that were produced in the 'scriptorium' or specialised workshops of the monasteries by monks with high artistic and doctrinal qualifications for the monasteries themselves, the churches and the kings. The vanitas is an artistic genre that emphasises the emptiness of life and the relevance of death as the end of worldly pleasures. It is considered a sub-genre of still life, usually of high symbolic and allegorical value. It is a Latin term (van?tas) meaning vanity (from vanus, "emptiness"), understood not as pride or arrogance but in the sense of futility, insignificance, fragility of life, brevity of existence. This type of representation is found practically throughout the history of art.