Lucy Goddard

Why do artists past and present continue to use the symbol of the skull in so many forms of artwork?

The human skull has arisen as one of the most recognisable symbols of today’s contemporary arts and visual landscape. Reborn through music, fashion and art of an alternative youth culture it has evolved from its spiritual and religious origins to become an icon for a post-modern society. From African charms to Mayan cultures, Greek myths to Aztec legends, the human skull appears throughout myth and legend of human culture. A sacred symbol of luck or intellect, protection or fear, flesh or the soul, death or resurrection, its mystical and spiritual powers have captivated humanity and cast the skull as an emblem for the human consciousness, a memento mori through which to explore our fascination with the transience of life, death and the human soul. Reworked by artists, illustrators and designers, this morbid motif has found its way into urban life, its macabre and mystic meanings re-appropriated as a symbol of spirituality, anarchy, and rebellion. From the Misfits to Massive Attack, Andy Warhol to Alexander McQueen, Van Gogh to Damien Hirst, the skull has straddled the worlds of art, popular culture and fashion to become today’s ultimate anti-establishment icon.The earliest human artistic representations of the skull date from around 100,000 B.C. The earliest certifiable artistic use of the bone in this form, however, did not occur until around 7000 B.C. in Jericho (which is now modern day Palestine). This also happens to be one of the oldest inhabited cities on the planet; archaeologists have discovered the remnants of more than 20 settlements in the area dating back to around 10,000 B.C. (Eichenberg, D. 2016) This would suggest that Jericho sprung up right around the same time that humans started to abandon a hunter-gatherer lifestyle in exchange for permanent settlements and an agricultural lifestyle. With such lasting settlements came permanent graves, and hence the treatment of human remains for burial, and in turn, art-form. The common practice at the time was to bury the bodies beneath the home. In most cases, the skull was removed first. After removing any flesh, the face and head were remodelled with plaster, and shells were used in place of the eyes. (British Museum, 1954) They were then painted to resemble the dead, and displayed in the home. This is demonstrated in figure 1. Some may believe that artefacts such as these have more relation to burial and memorial than they do to art and design, however I think it combines the two harmoniously. The earlier humans who created these sculptures, in my eyes, were being resourceful and creating artwork from what was readily available at the time. After all, the skull was remodelled to show resemblance of the person it once belonged to, and was presented in the home, a concept not far from the portrait paintings, sculptures or photographs one displays in their home in modern times. A similar practice was carried out by the ancient Zapotec people of Oaxaca. The skulls of their ancestors were mixed with ivory, bamboo, jade, turquoise, and other minerals in a mosaic-like fashion to show the status of the dead. There are many examples that have been recovered from the Monte

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Lucy Goddard

Alban site outside Oaxaca, dating anywhere from 500 B.C. to 900 A.D. (Eichenberg, D. 2016). These have even been compared to the famous Damien Hirst piece, "For the Love of God." It's easy to see how such a comparison could be made. Thus, the first use of the human skull in art seems to have been funerary in nature, a memorial of sorts. And therefore began a long history, continued to this very day, of remembering and celebrating the memory of the dead with art.

The same concept is present in Mexico’s culture, the form of the Mexican holiday, ‘Day of the Dead’ (Dia de los Muertos). It focuses on remembering and honoring the departed, and it's roots have been traced back to the Aztec festival in honour of Mictecacihuatl, the Aztec goddess who ruled and watched over the dead. (Eichenberg, D. 2016) These festivals evolved from Aztec traditions into the modern Day of the Dead after fusion with Spanish traditions. She now presides over the contemporary festival as well. Mictecacihuatl is known as the Lady of the Dead, since it is believed that she was born, then sacrificed as an infant. According to folklore she escorted the newly departed back to their already departed families and kept watch over the bones of

the dead. Figure 2 is a statue depicting her. Modern Day of the Dead celebrations are filled with skull and skeleton imagery, including sugar skulls, masks, ofrendas (altars in memory of the dead), tattoos, dolls, parade floats and so on. On the 1st and 2nd of November families decorated the graves of their loved ones with drawings called ‘calaveras’ (skulls) to evoke the spirits of the dead to hear the prayers and thoughts of the living. The holiday has spread throughout many parts of the world, in turn influencing the use of the skull and skeleton in art. There are similar celebrations in virtually every corner of the world now, from America to Europe and Asia. It is perhaps one of the greatest influences on skull-themed art worldwide, at least in recent times. Mexican political printmaker and engraver José Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913) created a parody of an upper-class Mexican female entitled La Calavera Catrina, in which she was depicted as a skeleton in fashionable attire. This striking figure has since become associated closely with the Day of the Dead holiday, and Catrina figures are often part of the festival. The Catrina figure, and many other elements of the Day of the Dead, continue to influence artists today, such as Laurie Lipton. Figure 3 is Posada’s zinc etching named ‘La Calavera Catrina’ (1913, meaning ‘Dapper Skeleton' or 'Elegant Skull'). The image depicts Catrina, the female skeleton dressed only in a hat befitting the upper class outfit of a European of her time. She is intended to be a satirical portrait of those Mexican natives who felt as though their culture was aspiring to adopt European aristocratic traditions in the pre-revolution era. She also symbolises the contrasts between the upper and lower classes, for times were cruel. The social classes were extremely segmented and the highest class was the most fortunate,

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Lucy Goddard

enjoying many privileges; in contrast, the lower classes were nearly invisible. To explain and rescue the folklore of worshiping the dead, while showing this off to high society, José Guadalupe Posada made her a caricature of Death. (Annenberg Foundation, 2016)

The Day of the Dead and La Calavera Catrina highlight just how long one concept of the skull can span throughout human history, originating from an Aztec god to a festival still celebrated by the Mexican culture to this day and remains one of the most significant celebrations of death in modern society. (Dowling, F. 2011) It is clear to me that a large part of skull imagery in artwork has connections to honoring the dead and celebrating life – a reoccurring theme which will keep cropping up throughout cultures and time. The political and satirical work of Posada is one I find particularly interesting, as it demonstrates a longing to keep Mexican traditions like these from losing their true meaning to other more dominate cultures, who may bring a sense of vain shallowness or emptiness to the custom.The Day of the Dead of course originates from Aztec and other Mesoamerican culture, famous for their fixation with bones and the dead. In their time, the skull had other functions rather than just a tribute to the dead: skull racks, or tzompantli, were a type of scaffold-like construction used to display rows and columns of human skulls. Their use has been documented in several Mesoamerican cultures, such as the Toltec, Mayans, and Aztecs. The skulls usually came from war captives or sacrificial victims. They were in use from 600 A.D. to 1250, though it is possible they were in use as early as 200 B.C. in the Zapotec civilization in modern Mexico. (Eichenberg, D. 2016). Eduardo Matos, an archaeologist at the National Institute of Anthropology and History, suggested the skull rack “was a show of might” by the Aztecs. Friends and even enemies were invited into the city, precisely to be cowed by the grisly display of heads in various stages of decomposition. (The Guardian, Associated Press in Mexico City, 2007). So rather than a positive display of memorial, the Aztecs essentially constructed skull racks as a trophy cabinet of sorts, to warn outsiders and enemies of their strength.The tzompantli may have been an influence on the design of New Yorks well known Goldbar, considering the love of both skulls and gold displayed by cultures like the Aztecs. And because they preceded the European ossuaries, and it is known that the Spanish and other cultures witnessed them, it is certainly a possibility that the Mesoamerican tzompantli influenced the design of the many ossuaries that followed all over the world. Figure 4 is a photograph of a wall within the Goldbar in New York city modern day.

Lucy Goddard

Obviously, the use of the skull in artwork was not restricted just to South American culture but was and still is present all over the world. The human skull has had great significance in European Christian artwork, particularly paintings of the Renaissance period. In the early 14th century the Black Death cast a grave shadow upon early Renaissance society, reminding people that 'Death' watched over them all. (Dowling, F. 2011) The Dance of Death emerged as a morbid satirical warning of the inevitability of death, and was visualised by artists such as artists such as Michael Wolgemut and later Hans Holbein and Damien Lhomme. Over this art period emerged the 'vanitas', the term originates from the opening lines of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible: ‘Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.’ Vanitas are closely related to memento mori still lifes, which are artworks that remind the viewer of the shortness and fragility of life (memento mori is a Latin phrase meaning ‘remember you must die’) and include symbols such as skulls and extinguished candles. However, vanitas still-lifes also include other symbols such as musical instruments, wine and books to remind us explicitly of the vanity (in the sense of worthlessness) of worldly pleasures and goods. (Tate, 2002)

An example of such work is figure 5; Steenwijck’s ‘Still Life: An Allegory of the Vanities of Human Life’, oil on oak (1640). Steenwijck (1612 – 1656) was a Dutch Golden Age painter of still lifes. There is no doubt that at a first glance it is a beautiful still life painting, but there is meaning to the objects and quite a few motifs intertwined into the imagery of the piece, which is clear in its title.

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Lucy Goddard

The books symbolise human knowledge, the musical instruments (a recorder, part of a shawm, a lute) the pleasures of hearing the senses. The Japanese sword and the shell, both collectors' rarites, symbolise wealth (The National Gallery, 2017). The candle alludes to the transience and frailty of human life – it can be taken away as easily as blowing out a flame. All are dominated by the skull, the symbol of death and decay.Below are two images: figure 6 is a painting by Pieter Claesz named ‘Skull on Table’ (1630), the other (figure 7), a deer skull photographed and edited by myself. Although they are not strictly similar, there is an essence to my photograph that reminds me of vanitas and memento mori styled paintings of the Renaissance. This just happened to be a coincidence, as the image belongs to my previous unit one and two body of work which was heavily based around the symbol of skull and was taken as an experiment with multiple exposure photography. There are many differences between the images, one a painting created in the 17th century and the other a photograph from modern times. A major difference to me is that my image is of an animal skull whereas the painting depicts a human skull, and of course the use of a human skull is key to the message of the piece; to remind humankind that one day they must die. I would of very much liked my work to display a real human skull but that is quite hard to come across, so I compromised and used a real deer skull. I could have easily sourced a human skull replica but I wanted my images to have authenticity and show the true texture and delicateness of bone. To me, the similarities between the two pieces are the tone; predominately greyscale with the lightest and white tones belonging to the skull, which gives a sense of eeriness. My photograph is also very much composed to show likeness of a still life painting; the skull is placed on a table out of context, and is the centre of attention for the viewer. I think that the use of multiple exposure and opaque layering displays a sense of fragility and ghostliness, just as the symbol of the skull is intended to within vanitas or memento mori artwork.

. While these paintings decorated the inside of buildings, they are not the only form of skull interior decoration used in historical cultures – ossuaries, in their most basic form, are a place to store skeletal remains. This could be a chest, box, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human bones. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years the remains are removed and placed in an ossuary. The greatly reduced space taken up by an ossuary

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Lucy Goddard

means that it is possible to store the remains of many more people in a single tomb than if the original coffins were left as first placed.My favourite example of this is the Sedlec Ossuary located in the Czech Republic (figure 8) In 1278 the abbot of the monastery in Sedlec was sent to the Holy Land by the Bohemian king. He returned with a sample of dirt from Golgotha and sprinkled it over the cemetery. Golgotha, was allegedly the site of the crucifixion of Christ, and translates as ‘place of the skull’. (Eichenberg, D. 2016). This is something of a strange coincidence, as the church would eventually come to be filled with the skulls and skeletal remains of somewhere between 40,000 and 70,000 people. The cemetery came to be overcrowded, especially after the Black Death ravaged the population in the 14th century. And so it was that in 1511, a single half-blind monk of the monastery was given the task of excavating all the skeletons and stacking the bones in the chapel. And there they remained untouched until 1870, when a woodworker by the name of Frantisek Rint was given the task of arranging all the bones into the ordered form they exhibit today. Four enormous pointed pillars, stacked with skulls, occupy the corners. An enormous chandelier, containing at least one of every bone in the human body, hangs from the center of the ceiling. Frantisek Rint even added his signature, completed entirely in bone. The Sedlec Ossuary although macabre in nature is truly unique and impressive. Alike to the meanings of vanitas paintings, the

creation of the work derives from the Black Death. Of course, the ossuary displays this in a much more obvious way, by physically using the bones of those who died in the plague to create a fascinating form

of artwork and interior design. From an issue with overcrowding in the monastery’s cemetery came a practical solution and an interesting art form. The Sedlec Ossuary still remains and is open to visitors to the present day, which shows mankind’s fascination with the dead and skeletal remains, in just under 200 years it has not gone out of fashion. This particular ossuary has also been very influential in media, being featured in numerous books and films in some form or another. It was, for example, the inspiration for the lair of Dr. Satan in the horror film ‘House of 1000 Corpses’ (2003). (Sedlec Ossuary, 2017). This goes to show that when art like this is preserved and maintained over the centuries it can still have relevance and inspire us in contemporary times.Individual artists have too used in the human skull within their works, but Leonardo da Vinci was the first artist of his era to show the sections of the skull

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Lucy Goddard

in drawings for anatomical and scientific purposes. He first began studying the human skull in the late 1400's after gaining access to human corpses from the hospital of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. He used innovative techniques, such as injecting molten wax, to locate and draw the cavities around the brain in the bones of the cranium. (Eichenberg, D. 2016) Some experts believe that the oldest anatomical model skull, recently discovered in Germany, may be the work of da Vinci. He was a pioneer of the Renaissance period because in this time society began to turn toward a more humanist view of the world and encouraged scientific research and inventions that contemporary society still relies on.As an artist, da Vinci sought to represent realism in different forms, most notably that of the human figure. Instead of always painting the grandiose religious figures (which he still did some of) he often sought to show the true human spirit. A painting such as ‘Mona Lisa’  is still a reoccurring image in popular culture but all his works have a deeper significance to their longevity in contemporary society. Into the 19th and 20th century artists used skull imagery within their works to represent their personal commentary on society at the time, in other words to voice an opinion. For example, Vincent Van Gogh. No doubt one of Van Gogh's most macabre works, ‘Skull with Burning Cigarette’ (figure 9) is probably the most distinguished of his paintings from the Antwerp period. It's likely that the work was painted from a skeleton in an anatomy class while Van Gogh was studying art. Some interpret the work as being a statement of defiance against the artist’s faltering health because it was produced in a time when Van Gogh's wellbeing was poor (due to stomach ailments and rotting teeth) and may reflect his own concerns about his state of his health (Eichenberg, D. 2016) .However, others have suggested It was intended to be a comment on conservative academic practice at the time; before painting live human models, the academic routine would have included studies of skeletons, to develop an understanding of human anatomy - an assumption based on the fact that Van Gogh was in Antwerp at that time, attending classes at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, classes he would later say were ‘boring and taught him nothing.’ (Vincent Van Gogh Gallery, 2015). I would assume that it’s the latter explanation because of the juxtaposition in the piece. The subject matter, the skull (based on anatomical studies at a learning institution) would have been taken quite seriously at the time. It would suggest a closeminded approach to drawing at the time – there was only one way the skeleton should be presented in artwork, and that was the correct anatomical proportion. And of course the obvious, the skull is associated with death – something no one generally takes humorously. Yet, Van Gogh adds a contrasting sense of wit and playfulness to the painting by placing a cigarette in the skeletons mouth, which to me would suggest it was a humorous insult and a conflicting opinion against his place of education.

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Lucy Goddard

In terms of skull based artwork in contemporary times, a key artist is none other than the controversial Damien Hirst; a member of England's Young British Artists, who has often made death a central theme in his art. Extravagance and wealth typically play a role as well, though one might be hard pressed to classify his work as vanitas. He became famous for a series of artworks in which dead animals (including a shark, a sheep and a cow) which are preserved in formaldehyde. He is also well known for his piece 'For the Love of God' (figure 10), a platinum cast of an 18th-century human skull encrusted with 8,601 flawless diamonds, including a pear-shaped pink diamond located in the forehead that is known as the Skull Star Diamond – it sold for 50 million pounds. Hirst stated the idea for the work came from an Aztec turquoise skull at the British Museum. The skull Hirst was most likely referring to is figure 11.

The skull belonging to ‘For The Love of God’ (2007), was purchased from a London taxidermy shop, has been forensically analysed to show that it once belonged to a 30-year old European male who lived sometime between 1720 and 1810 (Other Criteria, 2010). The piece has quite a shock factor to it, namely because of the extravagance and cost but also because I would say that it is quite uncommon to have a human skull in your possession in the present day, or to even use it for such purposes. But this was obviously created with the public’s reception in mind and is so named ‘For the Love of God’ - as I’m sure Hirst anticipated everyone’s response beforehand. I think that the piece may have just been created for shock’s sake, not only this but Hirst is not just an artist he is a businessman – he would of predicted the income and attention brought in by the artwork. However in my eyes, this doesn’t take anything away from the beauty of the piece. Hirst said ‘For the Love of God’ was inspired by the Aztec turquoise skull pictured above, and a homage to it in some ways, as the artist has a lot of interest in Mexican culture and allegedly travels back to the country every year.

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Lucy Goddard

The turquoise skull is believed to be a depiction Tezcatlipoca, the Aztec god of ancestral memory and the nocturnal sky, who in Aztec culture created the world (Aztec Calendar, 2009). Seeing as the artefact would have been made in relation to spirituality, burial and honouring ancestors it may be deemed a little bit offensive that a £50 million diamond encrusted skull is being compared to it. Of course, there were comments made on the controversy of the artwork, British journalist Nick Cohen criticised Hirst by saying ‘the price tag is the art.’ And also wrote in the Evening Standard ‘the sooner he goes out of fashion the better.’ (Riding, 2007). In my eyes, ‘For the Love of God’ is more of a fashion statement and a showcase of extravagance than anything else. Nevertheless, Damien Hirst’s ‘For the Love of God’ demonstrates the point that skull artwork has a longevity in mankind – he was inspired by Aztec practices over 600 years ago but still produced artwork of the same concept, reworked over centuries, that sparks interest and controversy today in the 21st century.There is no doubt that the skull has become one of the most recognisable symbols in todays artwork and visual landscape, and has been very prominent in the past too. It is clear that the first used of the human skull in artwork was in a memorial nature, whether it be to show off the deceased’s status or to celebrate their life. The Mesoamerican historical cultures, like the Aztecs, who embedded this into society even before Christ still influence celebrations of death today. As time moved on into the 15th-17th century the skull gained more of a negative and dark meaning, especially European art, which was designed to warn all that no matter their vanity or wealth, death is the great leveler. The symbol has also been used not just to signify death but represent something else, perhaps an individual artist’s personal message, or a satirical, political or social commentary of civilisation at the time. And now to the present day – has the skull become less about meaning and more of a fashion statement?To me, a macabre human fascination with death, remains and honoring the deceased is what keeps concepts, traditions, celebrations going throughout centuries, the symbol of the skull within artwork has been reworked and reincarnated, intertwined through culture and time but is still as relevant and captivating to the observer as it ever was.