Nothing appears to be happening. That is rather the point. Vanitas is an art of stillness concerned with something that never stops: time Emerging most famously in 17th-century northern European still-life painting, particularly in the Dutch Republic, vanitas brought together carefully chosen objects to contemplate mortality, the brevity of life, and the uncertain value of worldly achievement. The paintings could be beautiful, often extraordinarily so. But beauty came with a warning: everything you see will disappear. Including you. What Is Vanitas? The word vanitas comes from the Latin for emptiness, futility or vanity and is closely associated with the…