English Carved Limestone Vanitas of a Human Skull

Provenance

Provenance: Found in Bath, Ex Private collection
See: Finch and Co catalogue no. 3, item 23, for two marble vanitas

‘I am as you will be: Memento Mori’

Literature

Continuing advancements in medical science together with greater prosperity and improved living conditions have contributed to a marked increase in longevity in Europe, and it is consequently rare for anyone below the age of 35 to have attended even a family funeral. Life is no longer fragile and death is not the constant threat it once was. The warning that earthly life is transient, that man is mortal and not divine goes unheeded.

Description / Expertise

An Unusual English Carved Limestone Vanitas of a Human Skull
Probably from a tomb
15th Century

Size: 29cm high, 18cm wide, 33cm deep – 11¼ ins high, 7 ins wide, 13 ins deep