Allegory of the Vanities of the World
Allegory of the Vanities of the World is a 1663 painting by the Flemish painter Pieter Boel, now in the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille. It is unusually large for a vanitas painting.
It shows symbols of art, glory, temporal power, spiritual power, wealth, knowledge, all heaped as a pyramid in a ruined palace or church. Atop the pile stands a crane crowned with laurels. To the right a circlet of iron, without beginning or rend, symbolises eternity. In the background a sarcophagus is inscribed "Vanitati S".