Squelette dans un linceul assis sur un tombeau

France, 1547 
Ivoire sculpté en ronde bosse
Inscription sur le phylactère : 1547 
H. 9 ; l. 8,8 ; pr. 3 cm
Legs baronne Henri de Rothschild, 1927 
Inv. 25660

@credis

Death, drapped in a shroud, sits on a grave. Her elbow leans on an hourglass and her right hand rests on a half opened scroll where the sentence “P(???) you are, you’ll be like me” is engraved. This kind of inscriptions is common on graves or representations of the Trois Morts and the Trois Vifs, a legend of Death killing three debauched young men.

Two attributes are generally associated to the skeleton to embody Death : the hourglass, symbol of time that flies and the scythe. The association of time with death was omnipresent in the troubled periods of the Italian and Religion wars; and the representation of death was common, through gravures, sculptures and painting, insisting that everybody was equal in front of it (mors aequat omnia).

The inscription is in French, so the sculpture was probably used by a French person for its private devotion.