Memento Mori (verso)

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: “This is beauty, and this what remains of it. This law applies to all human beings”. The skull image, called “Memento Mori”, 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.