Vanitas Still Life with Skull, Hourglass, Globe and Music, circa 1690. Painted by Edward Collier (c. 1640–1708). A richly detailed Vanitas still life by Edward Collier, bringing together a skull, hourglass, globe, musical instruments and sheet music. These symbols of art, knowledge and worldly achievement are contrasted with reminders of mortality and the fleeting nature of life, a central theme of seventeenth-century Vanitas painting.