Making a Vanitas Painting by Pieter Claesz

Please join me as I make a study of a Vanitas painting by the 17th century Dutch master Pieter Claesz.
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Materials used for my painting:
plywood(9.5 x 14.5"), acrylic gesso, natural and synthetic hair brushes, oil colours(lead white, yellow ochre, hansa yellow deep, alizarin crimson, burnt sienna, ultramarine blue, ivory black), quick drying medium, walnut oil.
Thank you for watching and if you enjoyed this video please consider supporting my art by subscribing.
More info on Vanitas art from Wikipedia and the Metropolitan Museum of Art:
Vanitas themes were common in medieval funerary art, with most surviving examples in sculpture. By the 15th century, these could be extremely morbid and explicit, reflecting an increased obsession with death and decay also seen in the Ars moriendi, the Danse Macabre, and the overlapping motif of the Memento mori. From the Renaissance such motifs gradually became more indirect and, as the still-life genre became popular, found a home there. Paintings executed in the vanitas style were meant to remind viewers of the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death. They also provided a moral justification for painting attractive objects .
Claesz was born in Berchem, Belgium, near Antwerp, where he became a member of the Guild of St. Luke in 1620. He moved to Haarlem in 1620, where his son, the landscape painter Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem was born (October 1).[1] He and Willem Claeszoon Heda, who also worked in Haarlem, were the most important exponents of the "ontbijt" or dinner piece. They painted with subdued, virtually monochromatic palettes, the subtle handling of light and texture being the prime means of expression. Claesz generally chose objects of a more homely kind than Heda, although his later work became more colourful and decorative. Claesz's still lifes often suggest allegorical purpose, with skulls serving as reminders of human mortality. The two men founded a distinguished tradition of still life painting in Haarlem. Pieter Claesz was influenced by the artist movement 'Vanitas'.
The subject might be interpreted as one of the many variations on the theme of worldly accomplishments-writing, learning, dabbling in the arts-that ultimately come to nothing: all is vanity. The wisp of smoke in the lamp and the reflections in the glass are signs of fleeting existence common in Dutch paintings. Here the skull is not merely an intrusion into a world of human activity, but the familiar attribute of a scholar or philosopher. For the original owner of a work such as this one, the image probably expressed not only the vanity of knowledge but also the knowledge of vanity, much as a contemporary portrait of a person holding a skull conveyed the sitter's belief in a spiritual life after death.

[@howlingwaters2741]

@Old Dirty Masters I love this. I'm spoiled to narration and soft classical music. How helpful a demo, even so!

[@burak5601]

I am so happy to come across to your channel. Wonderful content, beatiful artwork! Liked and subscribed! Looking forward to see more of these paintings. 👍🏻

[@olddirtymasters]

Thank you Burak!

[@davidbenasulin]

Amazing piece of art and wonderfully rendered!!

[@helentucker7713]

I find myself wanting more information! I think this is great to learn from by watching but I want more!

[@marijoseherrerogarcia3836]

Una clase magistral enhorabuena

[@geraldfrancke9439]

Amazing work and great way of discovering a painting. I particularly enjoyed watching you paint the glass with the reflections. Glad I found your channel. Would love to watch you study a Vermeer, my favourite.

[@olddirtymasters]

Thank you Gerald Francke.

[@spanixtanspanixtan8757]

We used to find this subject both in literature and painting. "Vanitas vanitatum, et omnia vanitas" (Ecclesiastes:)" complete emptiness, everything is empty". Also "Ubi sunt?" (where are they?(the powerful and famous people of the past have all died). In any textbook on the Spanish Baroque, you will find the macabre images by the painter Juan Valdés Leal "Sic transit gloriae mundi" ("This is how the glorious things in the world pass"). A crypt with two rotting corpses of bishops. Even a black insect is clearly visible. In the Middle Ages this human condition was depicted by the "Dance macabre" . Where skeletons, bishops, kings, knights, noble ladies, all danced in a circle with joined hands.

[@glennphillips4803]

The best I have ever seen on the internt

[@olddirtymasters]

Thank you Glenn Phillips:)

[@glennphillips4803]

Do you take requests?

[@olddirtymasters]

Thanks haven’t had many. What kind of artworks/artists are you interested in?

[@glennphillips4803]

@@olddirtymasters Vermeer or maybe one of Rembrandts later self portraits. How long have you been painting?

[@olddirtymasters]

I’ll look for one of these to try, thanks!

[@jvballatore]

Amazing.

[@chopin65]

Shared it on Twitter.

[@mrbogdanoff9233]

great copy, i subed, i would recommend a more limited pallete of a red, a yellow, a black, and a white, colors of your choosing

[@olddirtymasters]

Thanks 🙏

[@howlingwaters2741]

Just got my life sized teaching skull delivered. For me, these pieces are very time consuming. I'm redoing one I ruined 10 yrs ago before I learned the hard way.

[@alfredpan100]

Hi, I don't quite understand the part that is called sealing drawing and toning panel, could you explain briefly about that?

[@olddirtymasters]

I decided I wanted a warm color to show through the final painting so I put down that tone. Sealing the drawing wasn’t too important here because it wasn’t easily smudged by the paint. Sometimes I like to put the drawing under a clear layer so I can wipe away mistakes and not smear the drawing.

[@helentucker7713]

What do you dilute your paint with?

[@ArningEchanoPH]

this is awesome! love the limited color palette! Do you have an instagram? or any original works?

[@olddirtymasters]

🙏thanks! not at the moment

[@moksh2382]

I want to make this but with shading only.... Any tips?

[@olddirtymasters]

A drawing? Work from a black and white image instead of color if possible. Maybe use charcoal to get rich dark shades or a soft pencil. Give yourself plenty of time, go slowly- there are so many details.

[@gianfrancoimperiale9698]

Palette ?

[@veronikab7659]

This is amazing work! How long did it take you x

[@olddirtymasters]

Thanks, Veronika B🙏. It took a couple weeks to make.

[@reregulsky9953]

Lucrătură nu comentez punem moartea în centrul tabloului se putea pune un alt element de contrast sau execuție anatomică pictăm moartea f frumos ????

[@H3nry488]

Reminds me a bit of painting by number

[@hrr222]

Lol it’s not old masters technique at all! It’s some kind of modern alla prima stuff!

[@paweyyy3338]

As a modern copy, it may be OK. But the Old Masters are still inimitable.

[@Divinemessages69]

As a fellow representational artist, this is painful to watch as I have been there many times with tiny brush strokes, but it all leads us to where we need to find our own inner artist voice, where we can paint our own versions instead of recreating what has already been done. What I mean is, you obviously have a great deal of patience perhaps it would be better to spend that time finding your own style of painting rather than following every tedious tiny stroke, each to their own though! I was given good advice years ago that if you squint your eyes you see the painting in tones rather than all the details, using a bigger brush and laying on the tones in your own strokes might be something that you like better or may lead you to something else altogether. Just my opinion of course, great work and I applaud your level of patience.

[@gaelhillyardcreative]

Perhaps they can do as they choose.

[@howlingwaters2741]

Good artists paint. Great artists copy.