# Memento Mori \(verso\)

[View the canonical artwork record](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/previtali-andrea-rf8f027fcec3b58/memento-mori-verso-re0f02f72b9ec67>)

## Artwork

- Artist: [PREVITALI, Andrea](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/previtali-andrea-rf8f027fcec3b58>)
- Date: 1501-1550
- Technique: Panel, 24 x 18 cm

## Commentary

This is the reverse side of the panel representing the Portrait of a Man. On this side a skull is depicted, a reference to the transitory character of beauty and youth. The Latin inscription above the skull reads: &#34;This is beauty, and this what remains of it. This law applies to all human beings&#34;. The skull image, called &#34;Memento Mori&#34;, is painted upside down in respect to the portrait on the front, indicating that the panel was likely to have been positioned on a rotating support, so that the front and the back could have alternately been seen.

## Related artworks

- [Madonna Baglioni](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/previtali-andrea-rf8f027fcec3b58/madonna-baglioni-rb29351896276fc>)
- [Mystic Marriage of St Catherine](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/previtali-andrea-rf8f027fcec3b58/mystic-marriage-of-st-catherine-r2c5d7186d8d18f>)
- [Nativity](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/previtali-andrea-rf8f027fcec3b58/nativity-r4cd43b025d1a82>)
- [Portrait of a Man \(recto\)](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/previtali-andrea-rf8f027fcec3b58/portrait-of-a-man-recto-ra162db7101de70>)
- [Submersion of Pharaoh in the Red Sea](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/previtali-andrea-rf8f027fcec3b58/submersion-of-pharaoh-in-the-red-sea-r5e4388ae91a7bd>)
- [Transfiguration](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/previtali-andrea-rf8f027fcec3b58/transfiguration-r0e024192cdab47>)

## Attribution

[Web Gallery of Art](<https://beta.wga.hu/pages/about>)
