Terracotta bozetto

This detailed terracotta skull shows the Latin motto Memento Mori: remember death. It reminds man of his mortality and the transience of life. The memento mori motif is connected with the vanitas theme in which emptiness, temporality, and transience are central. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the allegory of transience and death is often called the counterpart of Baroque sensuality and exuberance. The numerous vanitas objects for private use reminded man that he was not divine, but merely mortal. One of the most impressive symbols of the memento mori is the skull, the personification of death. It is both a warning and an object that calls for contemplation.