Italian, probably late 17th century

Symbols of death are common to every civilisation. The vogue for such reminders of our own mortality in European art originated in tombs and funerary monuments, and from the 17th century, examples were increasingly made as intellectual stimulation in the context of the Kunstkammer, or palace decoration in a wide range of materials. Marble busts in this genre are very rarely signed and are, therefore, datable only on stylistic and technical grounds. The extensive drilling in the present bust and the treatment of the back seem to suggest a 17th century dating. The naturalistic skull is finely carved and the addition of the snake is a frequent iconographic feature of Momento Mori with its association with both death and eternity.