Death as a Skeleton

This ivory skeleton, a memento mori (reminder of death) may have been once owned by Dr Richard Mead (1673-1754), whose gallery in Great Ormond Street, London displayed his extensive collection of works of art and antiquities in the 1740s. A detailed description of Dr Mead's collection published in Latin in 1790 mentions (in translation) 'a man's skeleton very accurately designed, leaning with his left elbow on a clock and with that hand supporting his head, holding in his right hand a scythe; it is treading underfoot sceptres, crowns, helmets and other symbols of power and rank. The work of Albert Durer. One foot and half an inch high'. This description exactly matches the V&A's ivory, although it is not based on a work by Dürer, but relates to a plate in Andreas Vesalius, 'De Humani Corporis Fabrica', published in 1555.