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LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-SA 4.0 Licence
Buy this image as a print
BuyLicense this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library
LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-SA 4.0 Licence
Buy this image as a print
BuyLicense this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library
LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-SA 4.0 Licence
Buy this image as a print
BuyLicense this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library
LicenseGroup shot of various memento mori
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, London.
Wooden bust of a woman, half head, half skull
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Wooden bust of a woman, half head, half skull
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Wooden bust of a woman, half head, half skull
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Wooden bust of a woman, half head, half skull, mounted on a ivory and wooden stand, possibly Italian, possibly 19th century
Carved from wood, this statue shows a woman with half of her head intact and the other half with a bare skull. This type of figure is known as a memento mori – literally a reminder of death, used to prompt people about the shortness of life and the inevitability of death. A skull was used to represent death from the 1500s onwards, replacing the older image of a skeleton leading a living person to their fate.
Details
- Category:
- Anatomy & Pathology
- Collection:
- Sir Henry Wellcome's Museum Collection
- Object Number:
- A641349
- Materials:
- bust, wood, bust, mineral, bust, metal, stand, ivory, stand, wood and stand, metal
- Measurements:
-
overall: 148 mm x 52 mm x 51 mm, .18 kg
- type:
- memento mori
- credit:
- Loan, Wellcome Trust
