O Sonho do Cavaleiro

A young nobleman has dropped asleep in his chair, and the whole right side of the picture is his dream. Out of the dark a winged figure spreads a banner, and on the table before him lie the things people chase: a papal tiara and royal crowns, armour, gold coins, jewels, books, a mask for the theatre. Among them sit two skulls, a snuffed candle and a clock, reminders that all of it ends. This is a vanitas, a Spanish specialty of the 1600s, painted when Counter-Reformation preachers were pressing the idea of desengano, the hard waking from the world's illusions. On the banner runs a Latin motto saying that it wounds forever, flies fast, and kills, spelling out the lesson the sleeper has yet to learn.