Posthumous Portrait of Moses ter Borch

In this painting, Gerard ter Borch and his half-sister Gesina have collaborated to pay loving tribute to their brother Moses. Moses ter Borch died in 1667 during a battle of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. An accumulation of plants, animals, and objects are meant to symbolize his life.
 

		His military life is shown by the helmet, armor, and gun.
		The shells indicate his experience in the navy; most notably, the skull placed next to the seashell implies his death at sea.
		The hourglass, human bones, and a snake sneaking up behind a person’s back commonly symbolize human mortality. A butterfly can symbolize the delicate nature of existence or, to some, resurrection through its metamorphosis from larva to winged adult.
		Even the plants are meant to convey meanings of sorrow (cyclamen), constancy (thistle), and eternal life (ivy).

Today, we may not understand the meaning of symbols such as these without an explanation, but viewers would have more easily recognized them in Ter Borch’s own time.

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Image & Image Details: Posthumous Portrait of Moses ter Borch, ca. 1668; Oil on canvas. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.