"Memento Mori", German ivory skeleton - 18th century..., Wunderkammer...

"Memento Mori", Vanitas, elephant ivory (Loxodonta africana Blumenbach, 1797 o Elephas maximus Linnaeus, 1758) carving depicting a skeleton placed on a marble plinth. A vanitas is a symbolic work of art showing the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death. The skull was the symbol of death from the 1500s onwards; previously death was represented as a skeleton. Skulls were very popular in the Baroque period and were not only an essential part of any Wonderland Room (Wunderkammer), but also acted as contemplative reminders of mortality. In hourglasses, the interval taken by the sand or water to pass from the upper, full, to the lower, empty, constituted the measure of time; frequent as a symbol of the flow of time, the transience of human life and therefore also of death. Total height 26 cm, skeleton height 18 cm, base diameter 8 cm. Total weight 791 g, sculpture weight 47.5 g. Item condition grading: **** good (small lack on the upper edge of the base). Accompanied by CITES certificate. This lot is available for sale only with shipments within the European Union; the CITES certificate for export outside the European Community can only be requested for lots sold to museums.