Boeket met uitgebloeide tulpen, een anemoon en immortellen c. 1670

This drawing of wilted flowers was created by Jacques Bailly in the 17th century. Dominating the composition are the drooping tulips, an anemone, and immortelles, all symbols of transience and the ephemeral nature of life. The motif of wilting flowers carries with it a heavy weight of cultural memory. We find it echoed through time, from ancient Roman funerary art to vanitas paintings. This image speaks to the inevitable decay that awaits all living things. Note how the artist does not portray beauty in full bloom. Instead, he captures a moment of decline, of withering. It is in this tension between beauty and decay that the image engages our subconscious on a profound level. We are reminded of our own mortality, our own fleeting existence. But it is not all despair. Consider the immortelles—everlasting flowers—offering a glimmer of hope, a promise of enduring memory. They are the echo of life's persistence amidst decay. Like a serpent biting its own tail, the symbol of the wilting flower forms a full circle, reappearing across epochs and cultures, each time coloured by new nuances yet always tethered to the primal realities of life and death.