The melancholy of anatomy.
In the middle of the 17th century, two founding fellows of the Royal Society -- John Evelyn and William Petty -- commissioned portraits of themselves with skulls. The paintings were commemorative, because Evelyn was celebrating his engagement and Petty had recently acquired an anatomical post at Oxford, but both sitters also intended their pictures to serve as reminders of mortality.
Fara
Patricia
P
Clare College, Cambridge, UK. pf10006@cam.ac.uk
D000715:Anatomy / Q000266:history*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000266:history; D049670:History, 17th Century; D006801:Humans; D008512:Medicine in the Arts; D010151:Paintings / Q000266:history*; D011173:Portraits as Topic / Q000266:history*; D012886:Skull; D006113:United Kingdom