Deborah,
beside the Chardin painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, there
is at least another painting that comes to my mind: "Boy Blowing Bubbles at a
Window", by Frans van Mieris the Elder, Barnsley, Cannon Hall. There is a
reproduction of it in "The Dutch Painters" by Christopher Wright, New York,
Barron's, 1978. The caption mentions that "in the seventeenth century bubbles
were nearly always interpreted as a symbol of the brevity of life."
A glass bubble is hanging from the ceiling beams in the "Allegory of the New
Testament" by Vermeer in the Metropolitan Museum. Inhabited "bubbles" populate
Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights" and at least three examples can be seen in
Breughel's works ( see "The Netherlandish Proverbs", "Dulle Griet" and "The
Misanthrope".) I hope this can help you to start your quest. Anna
Anna Bigazzi
Mortensen Library
Art Library
University of Hartford
West Hartford, CT 06117
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