The Status of Art in a Vanitas Perspective. Case Studies in Genoese Painting

Vanitas iconographies in 16th and 17th century Genoese art usually are allegories centred on the human figure. This paper focuses on this kind of image - starting with an analysis of Luca Cambiaso’s allegory now in the New Orleans Art Museum, which anticipates many elements of Baroque Vanitas paintings - and it reserves special attention to works depicting the tools of the figurative arts or the process of painting itself in a context comprising emblems of the transient character of all human things and endeavors: “metapictures” which should be construed as reflections on the status of art in a Vanitas perspective. Relevant case studies referring to the work of such important and innovative 17th century Genoese artists as Valerio Castello and Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, called “il Grechetto”, are the main object of this study.