Still Life with a Skull and a Writing Quill, 1628, Oil on wood, 9 1/2 x 14 1/8 in. (24. 1 x 35. 9 cm), Paintings, Pieter Claesz (Dutch, Berchem? 1596/97?1660 Haarlem), This is one of the earliest dated still lifes by Claesz, a Haarlem painter who gave extraordinary presence to familiar things. Here a skull, an overturned glass roemer with its fleeting reflections, an expired lamp, and the attributes of a writer suggest that worldly efforts are ultimately in vain