Since medieval times, skulls have been used as a frightening warning. Present in still life paintings, at the foot of the cross in sacred paintings or in images of everyday life in the seventeenth Century, the skull reminds us of the fragility of human existence and makes us thing about man and his destiny. The skull is a comment on Vanitas, that is, the superfluous, sinful or useless things in life, such as clothes, jewellery, bags, scarves and tattoos. Just like that. But today, strangely enough, the skull appears everywhere on these very objects. They remind us of death; the skull is a symbol of darkness, and for this reason, in the 1980s, young punks, and Goths make it their symbol. From this moment, it becomes a fixed presence in the world of fashion; the designer Alexander Mc Queen created ground-breaking clothes decorated with human skulls. Artists also played their part: from the skull made up of seven naked women painted by Salvador Dalí to that adorned with diamonds by Damien Hirst; from ‘skulls and crossbones’ tattoos on the biceps of bikers to the colourful and flowery Mexican calaveras that adorn the bodies of hipsters. Skull-o-philes of the world unite!
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Since medieval times, skulls have been used as a frightening warning. Present in still life paintings, at the foot of the cross in sacred paintings or in images of everyday life in the seventeenth Century, the skull reminds us of the fragility of human existence and makes us thing about man and his destiny. The skull is a comment on Vanitas, that is, the superfluous, sinful or useless things... continue...
