The skull in this portrait of St. Jerome is an example of a “memento mori,” a reminder of death. The memento mori was once a fairly common trope in art, as this article from The Art of Manliness website explains quite nicely, illustrated with a variety of examples. https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/memento-mori-art/
As I write this, the entire world is in the grip of the COVID-19 [novel coronavirus] pandemic; 526,044 cases have been reported, and 23,709 people have died around the globe. Even if we do not wish to think of death, circumstances compel us.
We who claim the name of “Christian” must face trying times, and the prospect of death, with hope. This second of the “theological virtues” is that “virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit.” Catechism of the Catholic Church, ¶1817. That this pandemic is raging on during Lent does not seem like a coincidence.
Despite the cultural shroud of silence that surrounds the issue of death, we all want to know how to approach our own end with grace and dignity. In his review of Nicholas Diat’s A Time to Die: Monks on the Threshold of Eternal Life (Ignatius Press, 2019), Matthew C. Nickel, Ph.D. writes that the “monks serve as models, and we would do well to turn off the news and listen attentively to their stories.” https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2020/03/25/a-time-to-read-nicolas-diats-a-time-to-die/
This volume will definitely go on my reading list.
h/t Joyce G.