A skull, coins and pocket watch on a silk ribbon allude to the transience of earthly pleasures, while a book open at a print of a laughing Democritus is inscribed with the lines 'Everyone is sick from birth / vanity is ruining the world'. Most intriguing however is the suspended glass sphere, in which can be seen the distorted reflection of a studio, with paintings on the wall and the tiny figure of the artist himself at an easel.

Cat. 105