Some people won't have a skull in the house. Others have them on shirts, rings, mugs and walls. Both reactions are old. The skull has been in art for thousands of years, and for most of that time it wasn't meant to frighten anyone. It was there to make a point about life. This post follows the skull through art history and then looks at how to use one at home.
Why the skull, of all things
A skull is the part of a person that lasts. It is also a face, of a kind, and people are quick to see faces. So it is the plainest symbol there is for a simple fact: everyone dies. What an artist does with that fact varies. It can be a warning, a comfort, a joke, a celebration or a show of nerve.
Memento mori
The Latin phrase means "remember that you will die". The idea was common in ancient Rome. There is a Roman mosaic from Pompeii that shows a skull balanced on a wheel, with a butterfly beneath it and symbols of wealth and poverty hanging level on either side. The message is that death makes everyone equal. Romans also set skeletons into the floors of dining rooms. The point there was cheerful: enjoy the meal, because life is short.
In medieval Europe, and especially after the plague of the fourteenth century, the image became more insistent. Paintings of the Dance of Death showed skeletons leading away a king, a bishop, a merchant and a peasant, one after another. Again, the idea was that rank makes no difference.
Vanitas: the skull on the table
In the Netherlands in the 1600s, a type of still life became popular. It was called vanitas, from the Bible verse "vanity of vanities, all is vanity". These paintings set a skull among beautiful things: books, musical instruments, flowers, fruit, a candle burning down, an hourglass, a watch. Everything in the picture is lovely and none of it lasts.
These were not gloomy pictures to the people who bought them. They hung in comfortable homes. They said: you have all this, be grateful, and don't mistake it for what matters. Many of them are also very handsome paintings.
The best-known skull of the Renaissance is hidden. In Hans Holbein's The Ambassadors, of 1533, two rich young men stand among globes and instruments. Across the floor is a strange smear. Seen from the side, it turns into a skull.
The skull in the study
Scholars and saints were painted with a skull on the desk. It showed a mind fixed on serious things. Hamlet holding the skull of Yorick, the jester he knew as a child, comes from the same tradition. The skull became a sign of thought as much as of death.
Calaveras: the skull as celebration
In Mexico the skull has a different character. The Day of the Dead, on the first two days of November, is a festival for remembering family members who have died. It draws on older Mesoamerican traditions, in which skulls were part of religious art, and on Catholic observance. Skulls made of sugar are decorated in bright colours and given as gifts, often with a name written on them.
Around 1910 the printmaker José Guadalupe Posada drew a skeleton in a grand feathered hat. She was a satire on people who put on airs. Later named La Catrina, she became one of the best-known images in Mexican art. These skulls are funny, affectionate and full of colour. They treat death as part of family life. It is a tradition with deep meaning for the people it belongs to, and worth treating with respect.
The Jolly Roger and the warning label
Pirates in the early 1700s flew a skull on a black flag to frighten ships into giving up without a fight. In the nineteenth century the skull and crossbones was adopted as the mark for poison. This is the skull as a threat. It is the meaning most people think of first, and it is a narrow part of the history.
Rebellion: bikers, rock and skate
In the twentieth century the skull became a badge. Military units painted it on aircraft. Motorcycle clubs took it up after the Second World War. From the 1960s it spread through rock and heavy metal album covers, then punk, then skateboard graphics in the 1980s. Here it means defiance: I am not afraid, and I am not respectable.
Fashion and the gallery
In the 2000s the skull went mainstream. A fashion designer's skull-print scarf became one of the most copied accessories of the decade. In 2007 Damien Hirst showed a platinum cast of a skull set with more than eight thousand diamonds. Skulls appeared on baby clothes. By then the image had been softened by use. It can now be worn or hung with no dark meaning at all.
So what does a skull mean now?
- Remember to live. The oldest meaning, and still the main one.
- Equality. Under the skin, everyone looks like this.
- Courage. Facing the thing most people avoid.
- Remembrance. Love for people who have gone.
- Change. An ending that makes room for something new.
- Style. A strong, graphic shape.
Skulls at Kiyo Arts
Our skull pieces belong to the modern end of this history: space, neon and psychedelic colour, in place of candles and hourglasses.
- Melted Skeleton Skulls. Chrome skulls under a halo, on a black field of stars. It is a vanitas for the space age.
- Blue Flame Skull. A skull wrapped in blue fire.
- Skull of Mental Fire. A lime green skull with blue flames. Bright and psychedelic.
- The Void of Space. A skull in an astronaut's helmet, in green and blue.
How to hang a skull without making a room gloomy
- Choose colour. A skull in blue, green or chrome is a design. A realistic grey skull on black is heavier.
- One is enough. A single skull is a statement. A wall of them is a theme.
- Give it good company. Books, plants, warm wood, a lamp. The vanitas painters set their skulls among flowers for a reason.
- Pick the room. A study, a studio, a music room, a hallway, a games room. Think twice about the dining room or a guest bedroom.
- Frame it well. A good frame tells visitors it is art.
- Light it. Dark pieces need a lamp nearby, or they turn into a black shape on the wall.
- Start small if you are unsure. A poster, a pin or a keychain.
For more on dark pieces that stay tasteful, see vamp romantic and whimsigoth and Halloween wall art that works all year.
Buying one as a gift
Know the person. Someone who wears skull rings will be delighted. Someone recently bereaved may not be. If you aren't sure, ask, or choose something else from our gift guide by budget.
Browse the canvas art and poster prints collections.