Twee aanzichten van een schedel before 1881

Editor: We're looking at "Twee aanzichten van een schedel," or "Two Views of a Skull," a lithograph dating from before 1881, currently held at the Rijksmuseum. It feels incredibly stark and academic, almost clinical. I am struck by the contrast between its scientific purpose and the inherent morbidity of the subject matter. What’s your take? Curator: Clinical is a great word! It *is* a scientific image, attempting to dissect knowledge, or compartmentalize, perhaps even quantify the unknown, unknowable space we all end up occupying...in a way. Do you feel that scientific pursuit strips it of emotion or imbues it with more because someone tried to grapple with something so fundamentally frightening, and deeply universal? It makes me think, too, of the history of anatomical illustration, a constant negotiation between objectivity and mortality. Look how the numbers written on the skull in the lower view become integrated to its overall aesthetic; its dryness becomes very compelling. Editor: I hadn’t considered that those annotations could almost add a human layer to the subject—in this case, an absence. I can see the tension, now. Did people often add numbering to this type of momento-mori imagery? Curator: Adding information was a function. Didactic, to start. In many cases, it would be considered visually desirable. Think of those wonderful early botanical illustrations with numbers keyed to a description…I am so pleased you picked up on that tension...it really gets at what it must have been like grappling, visually and existentially, with the Age of Reason…and pre-photography! So many people relied on the artistry and even artifice of an image like this to truly *see*. Editor: That's fascinating! I think I better understand now how seemingly dispassionate images can reveal so much. Curator: I agree. It also forces one to contemplate their mortality, in an honest way. Food for thought...or rather...skull for thought!