The simplicity of the work makes it particularly captivating - the composition consists mostly of sombre shades of ivory, grey and beige making up the bones of the skeleton, which then contrast from the deep black background. Normally associated with great swirling landscapes of colour and abstracted portraits, this dark and eerie work breaks away from his typical paintings. This is not the usual tone of painting that comes to mind when thinking of Van Gogh’s work. Skulls are a dominant feature in these paintings, a brilliant example of this being Vincent Van Gogh’s Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette (1885). Despite this intention, many of the paintings still appear dark, gloomy and mysterious with the notion of death remaining triumphant. Instead the viewer is meant to be inspired and encouraged to consider each day as a gift. However, this ‘reminder of death’ is not supposed to be sinister. It continued into the modern period with many artists including motifs such as skulls, clocks, hourglasses and damaged musical instruments in their composition - all reminders of time running out and things coming to an end. The tradition can be traced back to the Roman period, throughout Ancient Egypt and into the Middle Ages where memento mori and ‘danse macabre’ (dance of death) paintings grew as a specific genre, most likely due to the overwhelming devastation that occurred during that time. The phrase itself in Latin means,‘reminder of death’ and the images seek to highlight the universality and inescapability of death. The memento mori tradition centres around symbols and motifs designed to inspire in the viewer through thoughts on their mortality.
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