2025年4月4日星期五 
Luyckx’s Vanitas Pair Soars Beyond €200,000 at Kâ-Mondo's Sale
U nveiled to visitors during the Œuvres Choisies exhibition, these two large vanitas paintings by Flemish artist Carstian Luyckx (1623 – after 1670) caused a sensation at the 4 April sale held by Kâ-Mondo auction house.
Each initially estimated between €15,000 and €20,000, the Vanitas with a Terrestrial Globe soared to €107,950, while the Vanitas with a Celestial Globe — featuring a portrait of the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe — reached €111,760. Likely conceived as a pair, the two compositions display a refined interplay of baroque symbolism and intellectual iconography.
Globes, engravings, seashells, books, scientific instruments and playing cards form a visual meditation on the fragility of pleasure and the pursuit of meaning. Coral, a symbol of divine protection, appears alongside markers of a world in constant transformation — between cosmic knowledge and earthly vanity.
