Life and Death

The painting shows a bust-length figure in a gold oval frame. The right side of the figure's face (the viewer's left) appears healthy with rosy skin, while the left side is a skull with exposed teeth and a hollow eye socket. A dark snake is entwined within the hair on the skeletal side, and a dark toad rests on the figure's shoulder. The figure wears a white ruffled collar, or ruff, and a red-patterned garment beneath. The expression is impassive, emphasizing the stark juxtaposition between the vibrant vitality of youth and the encroaching corruption of death.

This work belongs to the memento mori tradition, a genre of symbolic art intended to remind the viewer of the inevitability of death and the transience of earthly life. It specifically echoes the 'Vanitas' tradition of the early modern period, which used decaying organic matter, insects, and skeletal features to critique vanity and the vanity of human existence.