Artwork of the Day
With the Artwork of the Day we connect a work of art to one of the concert programmes. Sometimes the link is obvious, sometimes surprising or unexpected. Today’s choice: Vanitas Still Life with Self-Portrait of the Artist (1651) by David Bailly.
Seventeenth-century vanitas paintings reflect on the transience of life. Objects such as skulls, withered flowers, and extinguished candles remind us that wealth and beauty are fleeting. In his painting, David Bailly presents himself not only as a painter but also as a philosopher of time. The canvas shows the artist surrounded by vanitas symbols: a skull, a snuffed-out candle, a watch, an hourglass, as well as precious jewels, musical instruments, and a tulip on the verge of wilting. Bailly adds a striking play with time: alongside his older self-portrait, he depicts a younger version of himself and a portrait of his wife. The painting meditates on life, love, and mortality.
The same themes of time and transience resonate in Georg Philipp Telemann’s Die Tageszeiten. The composer portrays the day in four parts (morning, midday, evening, and night) letting us experience how days endlessly return yet are never the same.
A Nocte Temporis performs the four times of day in four concerts scheduled to match the hour. Their music is accompanied by sand artist Natalia Moro, who creates live images projected above the stage. Just as Bailly’s hourglass measures time, Moro quite literally lets time slip through her hands.
