Art Institute of Chicago

Young Man with a Skull

Lucas van Leyden

Date

c. 1519

Medium

Engraving in black on ivory laid paper

Culture

Netherlands

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

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 Emperor Maximilian’s hatpin, which was also made in 1519, it would have resembled the tiny face stylishly worn on the cap of this unidentified man.

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