AN ITALIAN, BAROQUE STYLE CARVED MARBLE VANITAS BUST

the Memento Mori bust carved as a man to one half and a skull to the other, the back rusticated, raised on a black Portor marble socle,

57cm high x 29cm wide

For a similar Italian vanitas bust, see Christie's, New York, 27 April 2017, lot 197.

Vanitas sculpture, like Memento mori, were designed to remind the viewer of the transience of life and certainty of death.