An Early Fragmentary Iron Memento Mori Skeleton Figure c.1700

Object Description

The early iron(?) fragmentary skeleton comprising of a skull, torso and partial limbs, having been found on an archaeological dig and remaining somewhat mysterious, the whole surviving from at least the early eighteenth century.

Object History

An archaeological dig.

Object Literature

It is possible this was part of a larger composition; but this object is one that provides many questions rather than answers but for that we love it.

Symbolic of the transience of all human existence, the image of the skull has been used by philosophers and theologians, artists and sculptors, writers and poets for centuries to provoke meditative thought on the indiscriminate nature of death. Memento Mori pieces are designed to remind the viewer of their mortality and of the brevity and fragility of human life in the face of God and nature.

A very interesting and curious object and one probably worth age testing and carrying out further research on.

Object Condition

The fact that this object has survived underground for hundreds of years is wonderful and as such it has taken on a super untouched verdigris, with of course the obvious losses being evident

Object Details