Dreams Less Sweet Antiques

Description

Rare and unusual memento mori terracotta sculpture depicting a skull on a rock base with entwined snakes, with a characterful curl of hair on top of the skull.

Late 17th - early 18th Century.

European. Probably German.

The terracotta sculpture is painted atmospherically with realistic earthy tones for the skull, dark green for the snakes, and with brown rocks.

A dramatic and evocative sculpture.

Memento mori is a latin phrase that translates as ‘remember that you must die.’

A memento mori is an object that serves to remind the viewer of the inevitability of their death and the brevity of life.

The skull is a classic symbol of death, decay, and the inevitability of human mortality, whilst the snakes represent life, transformation, healing, rebirth, and eternal cycles, and the snakes entwined signifies the constant interplay between life and death, where decay becomes a stage for new life, or death itself offers eternal renewal. 

Good period condition with no damages or repairs.

H: 16cm / D: 15cm / W: 13.5cm.