Here we have a Frans Hals portrait of a handsome affluent man. He commissioned this excellent painting, and in his hand he holds a skull. That is - he holds what is left of some man's head. Why? As a reminder of death. As a reminder that you reading this are going to die. Christian men of that generation were apt to do that, not only monks, who are the specialists of christian extremism, but men of a more ordinary type. They did so because they believed it served a good purpose.


“As you are now so once were we.” James Joyce

Blatantly stolen from my profile. Shame on you!

^ Cata you have some excellent quotes, though I can not make heads or tails of the first one.

While at work I was considering a question. Where did that skull come from? You have to wonder about the provenance of detached human heads.

I'm not actually a fan of art per sé but I just want to quickly share with you that Frans Hals was a Belgian

Maybe they did some graverobbing?

Edited 12/31/2017 22:59:07