Memento mori

artistic or symbolic reminder of the inevitability of death

artistic motif on the universality of death

pirate flag

thumb|333px|Vanitas by Antonio de Pereda

painting by Vincent van Gogh

symbol of death

painting by Hieronymus Bosch

thumb|220px|August von Mackensen, German field marshal in hussar full dress prior to 1914, with the Totenkopf on his fur busby Totenkopf (, ) is a German compound word for death's head. The word is often used to denote a figurative, graphic or sculptural symbol, common in Western culture, consisting of the representation of a human skull – usually frontal, more rarely in profile with or without the mandible. In some cases, other human skeletal parts may be added, often including two crossed long bones (femurs) depicted below or behind the skull (when it may be referred to in English as a "skul

effigy tombs or slabs depicting decomposition

upright=1.4|thumb|Danse Macabre|Totentanz ("Dance of the Dead"), illustration from the [[Nuremberg Chronicle, by Hartmann Schedel (1440–1514)]] thumb|A death head wearing the Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire, on the sarcophagus of Habsburg emperor Charles VI in the [[crypt of the Capuchin]] thumb|Upper section of the Cadaver Tomb of René of Chalon|Transi of René de Chalon. Sculpture by [[Ligier Richier, ]]

painting by Frans Hals

oil-on-oak altarpiece by Rogier van der Weyden

painting by Vincenzo Campi

life sized funerary statue and memento mori

painting by Harmen Steenwijck