Aspects of death and their effects on the living as illustrated by minor works of art : especially medals, engraved gems, jewels, &c. / by F. Parkes Weber ; with 58 figures in the text.

  • Weber, Frederick Parkes, 1863-1962.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Aspects of death and their effects on the living as illustrated by minor works of art : especially medals, engraved gems, jewels, &c. / by F. Parkes Weber ; with 58 figures in the text. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    160/280 (page 148)
    in diameter, is described by A. Armand {Les Medailleurs Italiens, 2nd edition, 1883, vol. i. p. 36, No. 2) and A. Heiss {Les Medailleurs de la Renaissance, Paris, 1887, vol. i., Venetian medals, pi. ii. No. 1). I will here likewise refer to a little Italian bronze figure of Boldu's time (Fig. 57), for permission to illus- trate whicli I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Henry Oppenheimer, in whose collection it is. This bronze statuette (5-5 x 5 x 215 inches) represents a naked boy seated on the ground in a meditative attitude, leaning with his left elbow on an hour-glass, and with his right hand supporting a skull on his right knee; a snake issuing from the skull is coiled round the boy's arm. The base of the statuette is inscribed— IL . TEMPO • PASSA • E • LA • MORTO (sic) ■ V(I)EN. GVARITO (?) LYI (?) • CHI • NON • FA • BEN • FAC(CI)AMO . MAL • E • SPER(I)AMO • I(L) • BE(N) • IL • TEMPO • P(A)SSA • E • LA • MO(RTE) • V(I)E(N) • The actual appearance of the part of the inscription for which the words guarito lui are suggested is: PRTO l^A This inscription is apparently one of consolation for those who find life wretched or who take a pessimistic view of life, suggesting that when death comes it comes as a cure for the miseries of life. Mr. A. M. Hind has kindly directed my attention to a somewhat similar design in a Florentine woodcut by an unknown master of the fifteenth century, reproduced by G. Hirth and R. Muther in their work on Meister-Eolzschnitte (Muenchen, 1893, Plate 31). The woodcut represents a naked boy leaning on a skull with an hour-glass on the trunk of a tree at his head and the inscription : LHORA PASSA.