Young Man with a Skull
c. 1519
Medium
Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image/sheet, trimmed within platemark: 18.3 × 14.4 cm (7 1/4 × 5 11/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
40355
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Once interpreted as Lucas van Leyden’s self-portrait, this print is sometimes entitled Memento Mori (Remember you must die). The well-dressed, anonymous figure considers his mortality while pointing at the human skull (which may or may not be real) tucked under his cloak. This image predates by eighty years Shakespeare’s Hamlet, with his famous speech on poor Yorick’s fate, traditionally delivered with the jester’s actual skull in hand. If the round Dürer Crucifixion (1956.951) was printed from ...
About the Artist
Lucas van Leyden · 1484–1533
Lucas van Leyden (1494–1533) was a Dutch painter and printmaker who stands among the greatest engravers of the Northern Renaissance. Born in Leiden as either Lucas Hugensz or Lucas Jacobsz, he lived and worked primarily in his native city, achieving international renown that rivaled the German master Albrecht Dürer. Lucas van Leyden revolutionized Netherlandish printmaking and was among the first...