{"id":43714,"date":"2019-10-01T08:37:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-01T06:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/un-mes-una-obra\/still-life-with-skull\/"},"modified":"2019-10-01T08:37:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-01T06:37:00","slug":"still-life-with-skull","status":"publish","type":"un-mes-una-obra","link":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/un-mes-una-obra\/still-life-with-skull\/","title":{"rendered":"Still life with skull"},"content":{"rendered":"

Still life with skull<\/em> , an anonymous painting that can be dated to the end of the 19th century, refers to an extensive pictorial tradition (and not only pictorial) in which skulls and skeletons represent death and thus, the transience and fragility of life. There are so many skulls that threaten worldly pleasures by occupying a place in moralistic still lifes. <\/p>\n

And there are also many that are present in still lifes where books are piled up that give an account of the search for knowledge that is always powerless in the face of certainty and the mystery of death. This is how this Still Life with Skull<\/em> , which is hidden in the back of the Girona Art Museum, invites us to remember, thinking about, the skulls that, among so many others, Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Ribera, Cezanne and Van Gogh have painted. But, observing the painting itself, it leads us to think about what an owl is doing on the skull and a dagger embedded in the skull. Disturbing elements that are only an indication of what we will never know. In fact, there is only one certainty: death, so well represented with a skull. <\/p>\n

When I was little, near my school, there was a house with a skull on it. I never saw anyone go in or out of it. I never knew exactly what was inside the house, but it was related to electricity. We schoolchildren didn’t even dare to knock on the door for fear of getting electrocuted because what we knew for sure was that the skull symbolized a “danger of death”. Although the skull can be free from drama, especially in certain cultures, and carry a macabre humor with which to distance oneself from death, as is also exemplified by the fact that it is a recurring motif in tattoos, this symbolism is inscribed in the multiple representations of the fleshless skull which, like the rest of the skeleton of which it is a part, stubbornly survives after death. Every skull, whether real or represented, reminds us that we are in danger of death or that, in any case, death is the common and irrefutable destiny, ultimately the only certainty. <\/p>\n

The skull, then, endures, giving evidence of death: it is its proof, the matter that makes it palpable and at the same time the reason for allegories. Hamlet makes it present in the cemetery where a gravedigger shows him the skull of Yorick, that jester who laughed at everything: the prince wonders what has become of his mockery, his leaps and his songs; and he thinks of death (with the stinking decomposition of the body) that equals us all, of the passage of time and the futility of everything that wants to conjure up its effects, such as the ointments and potions of the ladies of the court. Hamlet’s reflections in front of Yorick’s skull, which complement the famous monologue beginning with “To be or not to be”, are a literary “Vanitas” that Shakespeare wrote in the early 17th century, the century in which Baroque painting turned this motif into a genre that illustrates the idea of \u200b\u200bthe transience of life and the evanescence of worldly pleasures. In addition to all the saints with skulls painted by Murillo and, among many others, especially Ribera, “Baroque” skulls appear in still lifes amidst ripe fruit, more or less luxurious ornaments, and books that symbolize knowledge. <\/p>\n

In everything that represents life, death throbs, as is also exemplified by those paintings by the German Baldung Grien that, made in the first half of the 16th century and therefore a few decades before the emergence of the Baroque, show a young, plump female figure threatened by death embodied in a skeleton that embraces her or grabs her hair. The Dutchman Frans Hals also painted a Vanitas in which a youthful figure is present: a smiling boy holding a skull in his left hand while his right hand, open to the viewer and in foreshortened form, seems to pierce the canvas; it is an apparently less dramatic representation, insofar as there is fear on the faces of Baldung Grien’s young women who centuries later inspired the filmmaker Agn\u00e8s Varda to make \u201cCl\u00e9o from 5 to 7\u201d, but it does not fail to remind us that death will also come to the young man who then seems unconscious and carefree. <\/p>\n

Another Dutch Baroque painter, the great Rembrandt, painted a painting in which on a table there is only a pile of skulls and other skeletal fragments; as did Cezanne, who painted a \u201cpyramid of skulls\u201d with the same determination with which he created his apples. Radically still lifes. Continuing with Rembrandt, the philosopher Franco Rella said that his self-portraits of maturity and old age show as if life were digging signs of death into the painter’s cheeks: the skull insinuating itself in the flesh withered by the passage of time and the pains of existence related to the premature death of his wife Saskia and almost all of his children. Observing with amazement some of these self-portraits, Vincent Van Gogh sensed that he had to have looked death in the face to be able to paint something like that. More than two centuries later, this other Dutch painter portrayed a smoking skull. Dated in Antwerp in 1886, it is entitled \u201cSkull with a Burning Cigarette\u201d and is a small-format painting about which much literature has been written. A joke against the classicism of academic practices at the Antwerp School of Fine Arts where the same drawings of human anatomy were insisted on repeating? A nod to Dutch Baroque painting through its black background and the implicit theme of Vanitas. It has also been said that this smoking skull is the first of his self-portraits and that it was made with the awareness of his emaciated physique: life digging up signs of death. <\/p>\n

Being an omnipresent motif in the pictorial tradition that reaches our days, there are many other skulls (Frida Kahlo’s “catrinas” rooted in the Mexican tradition as prone to the “cult of the dead” as to social criticism; Jean-Michel Basquiat’s skulls that, drawing from his father’s Haitian culture, seem alive because of their many colors) to which I could and should refer. But if I have mentioned only a few examples, it is in connection with a Still Life with an anonymous skull<\/em> that could date back to the end of a century, the 19th, which began with Romanticism that had death and skulls so present. <\/p>\n

A skull without visibility that is a note, if it ever is, on the fringes of the history of painting, but that is fully inscribed within its tradition. A skull without a jaw that stands upright on a red surface with a black background. A skull with two added elements that, with a diverse and perhaps even antagonistic connotation, demand attention: an owl on top and a black-handled dagger that, even if only symbolically, has been able to penetrate the hardness of a skull and that is perhaps there to give the clue to a murder that invites us to think of the popular literature of pamphlets and crime novels. But there is also the owl that, with its open and round eyes, has an ambiguous symbolic component: both clairvoyance and darkness. Hegel remembered it: the \u201cowl of Minerva\u201d (goddess of wisdom) appears at twilight, at the end of the day, just as Philosophy, always arriving late, begins after life and after the events have passed. Perhaps the owl in this painting is still trying to discover who committed the crime. <\/p>\n

Imma Merino Serrat<\/p>\n

October 2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":43716,"template":"","epoca":[379],"class_list":["post-43714","un-mes-una-obra","type-un-mes-una-obra","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","epoca-19th-century"],"yoast_head":"\nStill life with skull - Museu d'Art de Girona<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/un-mes-una-obra\/still-life-with-skull\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Still life with skull - Museu d'Art de Girona\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"October 2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/un-mes-una-obra\/still-life-with-skull\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Museu d'Art de Girona\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/museuartgirona\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/134662.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@MuseuArtGirona\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/museuart.cat\\\/en\\\/un-mes-una-obra\\\/still-life-with-skull\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/museuart.cat\\\/en\\\/un-mes-una-obra\\\/still-life-with-skull\\\/\",\"name\":\"Still life with skull - Museu d'Art de Girona\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/museuart.cat\\\/en\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/museuart.cat\\\/en\\\/un-mes-una-obra\\\/still-life-with-skull\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/museuart.cat\\\/en\\\/un-mes-una-obra\\\/still-life-with-skull\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/museuart.cat\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/134662.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-10-01T06:37:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/museuart.cat\\\/en\\\/un-mes-una-obra\\\/still-life-with-skull\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/museuart.cat\\\/en\\\/un-mes-una-obra\\\/still-life-with-skull\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/museuart.cat\\\/en\\\/un-mes-una-obra\\\/still-life-with-skull\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/museuart.cat\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/134662.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/museuart.cat\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/134662.jpg\",\"width\":670,\"height\":1024,\"caption\":\"Natura morta amb crani hum\u00e0 i gat negre amb ulls grocs mirant des de la foscor, pintura tenebrista a l'oli\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/museuart.cat\\\/en\\\/un-mes-una-obra\\\/still-life-with-skull\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Inici\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/museuart.cat\\\/en\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Un mes, una obra\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/museuart.cat\\\/en\\\/un-mes-una-obra\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Still life with skull\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/museuart.cat\\\/en\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/museuart.cat\\\/en\\\/\",\"name\":\"Museu Art de Girona\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/museuart.cat\\\/en\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/museuart.cat\\\/en\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/museuart.cat\\\/en\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Museu Art de Girona\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/museuart.cat\\\/en\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/museuart.cat\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/museuart.cat\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/marg-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/museuart.cat\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/marg-logo.jpg\",\"width\":305,\"height\":90,\"caption\":\"Museu Art de Girona\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/museuart.cat\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/museuartgirona\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/MuseuArtGirona\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/museuartgirona\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/c\\\/museuartgirona\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Still life with skull - Museu d'Art de Girona","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/un-mes-una-obra\/still-life-with-skull\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Still life with skull - Museu d'Art de Girona","og_description":"October 2019","og_url":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/un-mes-una-obra\/still-life-with-skull\/","og_site_name":"Museu d'Art de Girona","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/museuartgirona\/","og_image":[{"width":670,"height":1024,"url":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/134662.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@MuseuArtGirona","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/un-mes-una-obra\/still-life-with-skull\/","url":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/un-mes-una-obra\/still-life-with-skull\/","name":"Still life with skull - Museu d'Art de Girona","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/un-mes-una-obra\/still-life-with-skull\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/un-mes-una-obra\/still-life-with-skull\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/134662.jpg","datePublished":"2019-10-01T06:37:00+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/un-mes-una-obra\/still-life-with-skull\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/un-mes-una-obra\/still-life-with-skull\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/un-mes-una-obra\/still-life-with-skull\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/134662.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/134662.jpg","width":670,"height":1024,"caption":"Natura morta amb crani hum\u00e0 i gat negre amb ulls grocs mirant des de la foscor, pintura tenebrista a l'oli"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/un-mes-una-obra\/still-life-with-skull\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Inici","item":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Un mes, una obra","item":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/un-mes-una-obra\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Still life with skull"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/","name":"Museu Art de Girona","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/#organization","name":"Museu Art de Girona","url":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/marg-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/marg-logo.jpg","width":305,"height":90,"caption":"Museu Art de Girona"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/museuartgirona\/","https:\/\/x.com\/MuseuArtGirona","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/museuartgirona\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/museuartgirona"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/un-mes-una-obra\/43714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/un-mes-una-obra"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/un-mes-una-obra"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"epoca","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museuart.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/epoca?post=43714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}