Human skull

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Description

painted with roses, a cross and the letters “GB”, min. dam.;
the practice of engraving and painting exhumed skulls spread throughout Europe from Brittany to the monasteries on Mt Athos. It is closely associated with the spread of charnel-houses, which originated at monasteries and were taken up by village communities. Well-known centres of this practice are the towns of Faistenau and Gilgenberg in Austria as well as Altötting, Wasserburg on the Inn and Utling in Bavaria.

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Comparing literature

Laue, Georg (Hg.), Memento mori, München 2002, p. 87

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