This painting is a version of Castiglione’s signed Allegory of Vanity painted between 1647-49, today in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City.

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, Allegory of Vanity, ca. 1652-1655. Oil on canvas, 98.4 x 144.2 cm. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, F61-69. © The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri.

In this painting Castiglione explores the themes of the fragility of life and the ephemeral nature of human accomplishments. The podium holding the urn is inscribed 'VANITAS'. The mathematical and musical instruments, masks, bust, palette, brushes and pieces of armour represent man's scientific, artistic and military activities. The pleasures that these activities provide however are rendered meaningless in the face of death and eternity. A drawing at Windsor Castle (Royal collects ion) of the same subject, and dated to 1645-50, shows a dancing maenad in the same pose in reverse.

Benedetto Castiglione, Omnia Vanitas, dark reddish-brown oil paint on paper, 39.2 x 54.4 cm., Royal collects ion, inv. RCIN 904050