Artwork
Avaricious One and the Death
Avaricious One and the Death is an oil painting by the Flemish Baroque painting artist Dominicus Smouts. It dates from 1708 and is held in the collection of the Hermitage Museum.
About this work
The painting is called Avaricious One and the Death, made in 1708.
It's an allegory, which means it uses symbols to convey a message. The fact that it's an allegory makes it interesting, as it requires the viewer to think about the meaning behind the symbols.
You can learn more about this style by looking into the technique of chiaroscuro.
Overview
Dominicus Smouts, a Flemish artist working in Antwerp during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, produced the oil painting *Avaricious One and Death* in 1708. Executed within the Flemish Baroque tradition, the work belongs to the Hermitage Museum’s collection, where it is displayed as an example of the period’s genre painting.
Subject & Meaning
The canvas presents an allegorical scene in which a figure embodying greed confronts the personification of Death. Through this symbolic encounter, Smouts conveys a moral lesson about the futility of avarice in the face of mortality, a theme common to his satirical and didactic genre compositions.
Technique & Style
Rendered in oil on canvas, the painting employs the dramatic chiaroscuro typical of Baroque art, using strong contrasts of light and shadow to model the figures and heighten the emotional tension. Smouts’ brushwork balances detailed rendering of textures with broader, atmospheric passages, reinforcing the narrative’s moral gravity.
History & Provenance
Created in 1708, the work remained in private or regional collections before entering the State Hermitage Museum’s holdings, where it has been catalogued as part of the museum’s Flemish Baroque assemblage. Its provenance reflects the broader movement of Northern European artworks into Russian imperial collections during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Artist & collection
Artist
Dominicus Smout or Dominicus Smouts (before 1671 – 1742 or later) was a Flemish painter of genre scenes who was active in Antwerp between 1683 and 1733.
