Photograph by Ed Pollard, Hasselblad H4D50 - 2023.

Vanitas – Death and a Young Man (after Hendrick Goltzius)

Artist Jan Pietersz Saenredam (Dutch, 1565 - 1607)

Artist Hendrik Goltzius (Dutch, 1558-1617)

CultureDutch

Date1592

MediumEngraving

DimensionsOverall, Image: 10 1/8 × 7 in. (25.7 × 17.8 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase

Object number2023.16.3

Not on view

DescriptionThe Saenredam shows a well-dressed young man walking by some human bones on the ground and a tombstone surmounted by a skeleton. It is signed by the artist Hendrick Goltzius and dated in the plate. The tomb is inscribed “FUI NON SUM/ ES NON ERIS,” and below that it reads: “Et nos floruimus viridante aetate tumentes, Nunc praeter saniem, putriaque ossa; nihil. Tu modo turgascens vernas crispante capillo, Mobile labetur tempus, erisque nihil. Corpus, quod comis, nihil est, fluitantibus annis, tandem non etiam vile cadaver erit. Usque adeo nihil est; virtus mane una superstes, huius come comas, huius amato decus. F. Estius.”
ProvenanceC.G Boerner to CMA (2023)Published ReferencesAdam Bartsch, Le Peintre-Graveur III (Vienna, 1803–21), no. 123. Huijgen Leeflang, ed., The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts 1450–1700, part I–IV: Hendrick Goltzius (Rotterdam: Sound and Vision, 2012), no. 11.