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

"Memento Mori", elephant ivory Vanitas (Loxodonta africana Blumenbach, 1797 o Elephas maximus Linnaeus, 1758) depicting a skeleton with scythe and hourglass.
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 Chamber of Wonders (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.
Height 23 cm, base 6.5 x 5.5 cm. Weight 101 g.
Item condition grading: **** good.
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.