Art Academy: Add-On Lesson: Vanitas (4F)

This crossover monologue is done in the style of an Art Academy lesson, taught by the in-game tutor, Vince. As such, there will be references to visual images that, due to software limitations, you can't see. Some links and additional info will be furnished in the artist's comments.

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Hello! This is a bit embarrassing: I forgot you were coming today. I had just sat down to sketch one of my favourite possessions: my watch. I suppose this gives us an excellent opportunity to explore more advanced still life paintings!

You may have come to think of still life as fruits and flowers; until this point, all of the lessons we’ve done together have included some piece of the natural world. However, the term also includes pictures of man-made items alone, items like this timepiece.  

Consider Francisco de Zurbarán’s “Bodegón.” There are no pieces of nature here, not even food: just manmade artifacts. Look at the rich detail on the patterns of the pottery, and the care taken to show the shadows of each. Artists in Spain in that period often applied this kind of detail to mundane, seemingly unattractive objects. This austerity is called “vanitas.” Works that used elements of vanitas were very cynical, meant to show the hollow qualities of the physical world and make the viewer long for what lies beyond it.

I must admit I’m not normally much for vanitas. I enjoy celebrating life and its beauty, creating works of art that affirm how much even the simplest of lives is worth living. But sometimes, sometimes in my weaker moments, I think about how it all ends. Sometimes, I think about the artificial world we’ve built up around ourselves, and how devoid of life it can seem. Sometimes, I feel like we put the cart before the horse.

And it’s in these moods that I try to create vanitas, to draw and paint still life that shows how empty things are, instead of how full. Usually, I end up drawing this watch. It was a present from my first wife, and she designed and built it herself. I haven’t had the heart to open it and check the time since her passing. Sometimes I imagine the watch has stopped. Looking at it reminds me of the times we had, the adventures, the people we’ve left behind. Nothing can last forever, except maybe art.

I suppose I should open it, sometime, shouldn’t I? The watch is probably still ticking, a symbol of my wife’s everlasting love. I’d like to see my face when I open it… Hm, maybe you should take a photograph to mark the occasion, then paint it for your lesson. You could use the camera on your 3DS, or, if you’d like something with a bit more character, I have an antique camera out in the shed behind my house. You’ve never seen the shed? You can’t really miss it; it’s dark blue and looks uncomfortably like a police box…