The artist to whom this Vanitas is attributable is the famous engraver Grimling Gibbons, who worked in numerous European courts, including the Medici court in Florence. The skull, main subject of such compositions, rests on an open book whose bulging pages enliven and lighten the group of objects among which we can recognize a classical-style canopic jar and a wicker scourge. Some little stars revive the composition, devoid of that austerity typical of Vanitas.