At first, I was confused about what the painting was all about; however, as I looked

deep into it, I found something interesting with the artwork. The painting itself
portrays a hidden story within. At first, one might say that the painting is just a pure
painting of a famous painter, but looking deep into the picture, one will realize what
truly the painting is all about.

We can see that the person in the painting is holding a portrait of a person in his old
age (obviously because of his white hair). As I looked deep into the painting, I
realized that the person sitting and the person in the portrait are the same; it’s just
that the one is in his younger age while the other is in his old age.

Aside from the person who obviously will catch one’s attention directly as they look
into the painting, there are different things in the painting that hide a meaning. And
let’s go over them one by one. The presence of the human skull depicts death as
having means that death is inevitable and no matter what we do or have, an end will
always come our way. Have you seen that woman in the painting? It might be
important to the person sitting in the portrait, his lover or wife. We can see a younger
version of that woman in another portrait and a portrait of a woman who is fading,
marked by the extinguished smoke from the candle. This means that this woman has
passed away from the man’s life, and those flowers are probably the woman’s
favorite flowers. Another is a portrait of a young man on the wall with an empty
palette. It can be depicted that the man sitting in the painting is a painter and that the
young man on the wall is his younger version, and the empty palette signifies that he
hasn’t yet discovered his talent in painting. The sculptures and carving knife may
also embody that the man sitting is not only into painting but also sculpture.

The other things like the coins, jewels, papers, books, and wine and champagne
glass show that the man sitting in the painting became wealthy because of his
education and had been known by many as the wine and champagne glass signifies
a rare occasion of known people. The bubbles mean that life is so fragile that it can
be gone in a blink of an eye, just like the bubbles. While the hourglass says that life
comes with time, just like the sand on the hourglass, once all the sand on the upper
glass reaches the bottom, it means that life has no more time to come.

The painting shows that life has its limitations and it is not permanent. We can do
anything we want in life and achieve everything that we want because life comes
with time, and time has an ending. We can never deny that life is so precious and
fragile, which means we must make the most out of it. Live life with no regrets and
hate because, like the sculptures in the painting, one day, we will only be part of the
people’s memories.