Le Livre Des Vanités

The figure of the skull obsesses the history of art, all civilizations and cultures combined. An object of fascination, repulsion or meditation, categorised as Vanitas or Memento mori, it has been represented by all artists, from the anonymous mosaicists of Pompeii to the engravers of the medieval dances of death, via the Dutch painters of the Counter-Reformation, Picasso, Van Gogh and Cézanne, right up to the agents of provocation of contemporary art, including Damien Hirst and his ultimate skull, set with diamonds.

This book brings together iconographic representations of the skull.