Baroque (c. 1600–1750)
The Baroque is the mourning-jewellery epoch of drastic memento mori imagery: skull rings, skeleton pendants, hourglasses, scythes and inscriptions such as *Hodie mihi, cras tibi* define a mourning jewellery that does not euphemise death but makes it visible as a constant, almost gladly displayed admonition.
Written by Dr. Helene Vasall
The Baroque is the cultural high point of memento mori practice - the deliberate, artful and often theatrical engagement with one's own mortality. In no other European epoch was the imagery of death so ubiquitous, so accomplished, so socially integrated. Skull still lifes (vanitas painting), skeleton sculptures in churches, bone architecture (Sedlec, Évora, Faro), memento mori books of hours, All Souls' rituals, sermons on the Four Last Things - and, in the midst of it all, memento mori jewellery, which casts that cultural disposition into wearable form.
Period and political framework
The Baroque jewellery epoch spans roughly a hundred and fifty years:
Early Baroque (1600–1650). A religiously and politically turbulent period - the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), the execution of Charles I in England (1649), the French wars of religion. Memento mori jewellery serves as a personal answer to a world of high, ever-present probability of death.
High Baroque (1650–1720). The peak. Grand memento mori pieces are worn at the French, English, Spanish, Austrian and southern German courts. Stuart mourning rings appear in England after the deaths of Charles I (1649) and Charles II (1685). Plague epidemics (London 1665, Vienna 1679) intensify memento mori practice across broad sections of the population.
Late Baroque / Rococo (1720–1750). Memento mori imagery becomes increasingly decorative and less drastic. The transition to the Georgian sentimental tradition begins - the skull shrinks, the weeping willow takes its place beside it, and individualised commemoration of particular persons begins to take shape.
Material and workshop
The Baroque palette of materials differs markedly from the later Victorian one:
Gold - the central choice of carrier, usually 18 to 22 carat. The gold mounts are heavy and substantial, often with bold relief engraving and Baroque volume.
Enamel on gold - the most important technique of personalisation. Black enamel on a white ground (or the reverse) produces the characteristic memento mori idiom: a black skull on white, a white inscription in a black band, a black-and-white skeleton figure in relief (see Black Enamel (Schwarzemail)).
Rock crystal - as a transparent cabochon over hair, small bone fragments (in religious pieces) or miniature portraits (see Miniature Painting on Ivory).
Small diamonds (table and rose cut) - as the central motif or as a dense border. In the Stuart mourning ring the table-cut diamond sits above an enamel skull; in Late Baroque pieces diamonds are often set in sunburst or cruciform arrangements.
Ivory - as a support for miniature painting (memento mori still lifes, later a portrait of the person remembered).
Bone fragments and relics - in pieces of religious character, mostly Catholic and often referring to the relics of saints. Some memento mori pieces incorporate minute fragments of real bone.
Gemstones with memento mori meaning - above all black onyx, garnet (the stone of remembrance) and topaz (in the symbolism of transience). The High Baroque also produced memento mori cameos - carved stone cameos with skull or still-life motifs.
Principal forms
The skull ring. The canonical Baroque memento mori form. A substantial gold ring with an enamelled or carved skull as its main motif. In simple pieces the skull sits centrally on the hoop; in elaborate ones it forms part of a sculptural composition with a skeleton or hourglass. Inscriptions are frequently placed inside: Memento mori, Hodie mihi, cras tibi, Mors omnia aequat ("Death levels all things"). See Skull (the Memento Mori Deaths Head).
The skeleton pendant. A small gold figure of a standing or reclining skeleton, often articulated. In elaborate pieces the skeleton opens to reveal a hidden interior - a miniature hourglass, a small relic, an inscription plate or a hairwork mosaic. Usually 3 to 6 cm in height.
The memento mori locket. A locket bearing a skull or skeleton motif on the front (enamel on gold) and an inscription, image or relic within. High Baroque examples frequently use a three-stage construction: skull on the front, inscribed date of death in the middle, weeping willow or urn on the back.
The Stuart mourning ring. The English speciality following the deaths of Charles I (1649) and Charles II (1685). A gold ring with a table-cut diamond in a bezel setting, beneath which lies a painted or enamelled skull motif on a white ground. A highly specific, strictly codified English royalist form of mourning jewellery.
The posy ring with memento mori inscription. A particular variant of the posy ring (see Posy Ring) carrying memento mori mottoes instead of amorous ones. Common in the Baroque - the generic posy ring form filled with Baroque mourning content.
The vanitas brooch. A larger brooch with a complex memento mori still life - skull, hourglass, opened Bible, fallen rose, guttering candle. Found above all in the Netherlands and southern Germany, as the jewellery counterpart to the vanitas painting of the same years.
The cross pendant with a memento mori element. In Catholic contexts - a cross with an additional skull element at its foot, alluding to the skull of Adam beneath the cross of Golgotha.
Iconography and mottoes
Baroque memento mori iconography is rich and codified:
Pictorial elements:
- Skull - the central motif (see Skull (the Memento Mori Death's Head))
- Skeleton - as a full figure, often in a dancing pose (the danse macabre tradition)
- Hourglass - time run out, often winged (tempus fugit)
- Scythe and hourglass in combination - death as the reaper
- Fallen rose - a life cut short
- Guttering candle - vita brevis
- Cross with a skull at its foot - Christian hope of redemption
- Skull on a book - the transience of learning
- Ouroboros (serpent) - eternity (see Serpent (Ouroboros))
Latin inscriptions (a selection):
- Memento mori - Remember that you must die
- Hodie mihi, cras tibi - Today me, tomorrow you
- Mors omnia aequat - Death levels all things
- Sic transit gloria mundi - Thus passes the glory of the world
- Tempus fugit, memento mori - Time flies, remember death
- Pulvis et umbra sumus - We are dust and shadow (Horace)
- Vanitas vanitatum - Vanity of vanities (Ecclesiastes)
English inscriptions (in the Stuart period):
- Death is the wages of sin
- As I am, so shall you be
- Prepare to die
This multilingualism is constitutive: even in the German-speaking lands Latin inscriptions were preferred, because Latin as the European language of learning established a memento mori identity that crossed borders.
Memento mori as culture
Baroque memento mori jewellery cannot be understood in isolation; it belongs to a broader cultural practice (see Memento mori):
Religious grounding. The Catholic ars moriendi tradition (manuals on dying well), the Protestant sermon on transience, the Jesuit spiritual exercises with their meditation on death - all form the theological background against which a memento mori piece carries its meaning.
Vanitas still lifes in painting. Dutch and Flemish vanitas painting (Pieter Claesz, Harmen Steenwijck, Philippe de Champaigne) is the iconographic sister genre to memento mori jewellery. Both work with the same imagery - skull, hourglass, fallen rose - once as a panel painting in the salon, once as a wearable object on the body.
Bone architecture and ossuaries. Sedlec (Czech Republic), Évora (Portugal), the Capela dos Ossos in Faro, the Capuchin crypt in Vienna, San Bernardino alle Ossa in Milan - spaces that use human bone as architectural material. Memento mori jewellery is the wearable miniature of these spaces.
Plague epidemics as amplifiers. The plague of London (1665) killed some hundred thousand people; the Vienna plague (1679) some eighty thousand. Both events triggered a wave of commissions for memento mori jewellery. Late Baroque plague pieces frequently carry emblems of Saint Sebastian or Saint Roch alongside the skull.
Royal and aristocratic mourning. Royal deaths (Charles I of England 1649, Charles II of England 1685, Mary of Modena 1689, Louis XIV of France 1715) triggered extensive production of mourning and bequest pieces. In England in particular the tradition of funerary jewellery developed, with Stuart mourning rings bequeathed by will.
Transition to sentimental jewellery
In the Late Baroque and early Rococo (1720–1770) memento mori imagery begins to change:
- The skull grows smaller and moves out of the centre
- The weeping willow, the urn and the forget-me-not appear beside it
- Inscriptions become more personal (with initials and a date of death rather than only Latin mottoes)
- Hollow compartments for hair and small miniature portraits are added as routes to personalisation
- The generic reminder of transience gives way to concrete commemoration of a person
This transition is the prehistory of Georgian sentimental jewellery (see The Georgian Era (1714–1837)). The Late Baroque mourning tradition (c. 1720–1750) is at once an inheritance of memento mori and a precursor of sentimental jewellery; in many pieces both strands are visibly present side by side.
Today
Baroque memento mori jewellery is today an established collecting field with high market values. Stuart mourning rings fetch between 5,000 and 30,000 euros at auction; elaborate skeleton pendants and vanitas brooches reach six-figure top prices. The most important collections are held by the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and the Galleria degli Uffizi.
In the present-day jewellery market, references to the Baroque occur in three areas:
Gothic and dark-academia jewellery. A subculture that wears historicising skull rings, scythe pendants and memento mori lockets as an aesthetic gesture - usually without the religious and philosophical grounding of the Baroque originals, but with a deliberate appropriation of their imagery.
Specialised workshops. A very small number of goldsmiths in England, the German-speaking countries and Italy make historicising memento mori pieces to commission - often for historically minded clients or for particular occasions of mourning that call for a deliberately archaic gesture.
Conceptual memorial jewellery. Individual contemporary workshops and jewellery artists take up the memento mori idea conceptually - mourning jewellery that addresses the wearer's own mortality, not only that of another. The genre is small but substantial in content.
The greater legacy of the Baroque lies in its concept: that mourning jewellery need not only commemorate the dead but can also be a confrontation with one's own mortality - a logic largely lost in modern memorial jewellery, yet still present as a deep historical layer beneath every mourning piece.
Questions about this entry
- What distinguishes Baroque mourning jewellery from later Victorian work?
Three central differences. Imagery: the Baroque is explicitly memento mori - skull, skeleton, hourglass, scythe; the Victorian is implicit and material (a matt black surface). Addressee: Baroque mourning jewellery admonishes the wearer about their own mortality; Victorian mourning jewellery marks mourning for another. Code: the Baroque is religious and philosophical (a Christian-Stoic reminder of transience), the Victorian social and courtly (the obligatory code of court mourning).
- What are the most important Baroque memento mori pieces?
Four principal forms. The skull ring - a gold ring with an enamelled or carved skull as its main motif, often with a Latin inscription. The skeleton pendant - a small gold figure of a standing or reclining skeleton, frequently hinged to open onto a hidden interior. The memento mori locket - a locket with an enamelled skull motif on the front and a memorial image or inscription within. The Stuart mourning ring - the English speciality with a table-cut diamond set over a black enamel skull on a white ground.
- Did Baroque mourning jewellery always refer to a particular deceased person?
No, and this is an important difference from later mourning jewellery. Baroque memento mori pieces were often generic - they admonished the wearer about their own mortality without commemorating any specific person. Only in the late seventeenth and the eighteenth century did they become increasingly individualised, with names, dates of death and biographical references. This individualisation is the transition from memento mori to mourning jewellery.
- Are Baroque memento mori pieces still made today?
In a small niche, yes. Workshops in England and the German-speaking countries produce historicising memento mori pieces - usually as a deliberately antiquarian gesture, often in a Goth or dark-academia idiom. In the mainstream memorial-jewellery market they play no part. The iconographic tradition (skull, scythe, hourglass) lives on in tattoo culture and in a few jewellery subcultures.
Further reading
- Memento Mori - The Dead Among Us - Paul Koudounaris (2015)
- Death Becomes Her - A Century of Mourning Attire - Jessica Regan (2014)
- British Museum - Memento Mori Rings
- Jewellery in the Age of Queen Victoria - Charlotte Gere, Judy Rudoe (2010)
- Renaissance Jewellery - Yvonne Hackenbroch (1979)
Related entries
- Core conceptsMemento mori
Memento mori is the Christian-Stoic exhortation to be mindful of one's own death - and at the same time the iconographic soil from which European mourning jewellery of the 17th century grew.
- Core conceptsSentimental Jewellery
Sentimental jewellery is the jewellery of the age of sensibility between 1760 and 1840 - pieces in which love, friendship and grief share the same imagery, and in which hair, miniature painting and personal inscriptions first become the load-bearing form.
- Core conceptsMourning Jewellery
Mourning jewellery is body adornment that signals a death, binds the memory of a deceased person, or does both at once - since the 17th century a jewellery type in its own right, with a material language of its own.
- Core conceptsMemorial Jewellery
Memorial jewellery is jewellery that deliberately binds itself to one particular person - through an inscription, a photograph, hair, ashes or, the defining medium today, a digitally captured fingerprint.
- PeriodsThe Georgian Era (1714–1837)
The Georgian era spans the reigns of the four kings George I to George IV and of William IV in Britain. In mourning jewellery it is the epoch in which sentimental jewellery was invented - sepia hair painting, the lover's eye, the miniature portrait on ivory, and the posy ring in transition to the memento mori ring.
- MaterialsBlack Enamel (Schwarzemail)
Black enamel is a glass frit coloured with manganese oxide and fused in thin layers onto gold or silver - the most expensive variant of Victorian mourning jewellery and the preferred carrier ground for inscriptions.
- Techniques & craftMiniature Painting on Ivory
Miniature painting on ivory was the leading technique of personal portrait jewellery in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries - the finest watercolour work on ivory plaques 1 to 5 cm across, set in gold mounts and worn as a pendant, brooch or bracelet.
- Techniques & craftEngraving and Inscriptions
Engraving is the oldest personalisation technique in memorial jewellery - from the Baroque memento mori ring to modern laser micro-engraving, which today inscribes initials, dates of death and even photographed handwriting into metal.
- Jewellery formsMourning Ring (Memorial Ring)
A mourning ring - also called a memorial ring - is a finger ring that carries the memory of a deceased person, usually in the form of an inscription, an image, a lock of hair or a fingerprint.
- Jewellery formsPosy Ring
A posy ring is a gold ring, in use from the late Middle Ages into the eighteenth century, bearing an inscription engraved on its inner face - a relic in words, worn directly on the finger as a promise of love, friendship or remembrance.
- Jewellery formsMourning Locket
The mourning locket is a pendant worn on a neck chain with an interior compartment - a concealed carrier of hair, photograph or inscription that keeps the memento close to the body and has been, from the eighteenth century to the present, the most important private form of mourning jewellery.
- Symbols & motifsSkull (the Memento Mori Death's Head)
The skull is the sharpest and oldest memento mori symbol - a direct iconographic reminder of mortality and transience that became the dominant jewellery form in the Baroque and, after a long bourgeois interval, is present again today in modern memorial and fashion symbolism.
- Symbols & motifsSerpent (Ouroboros)
The serpent biting its own tail - the ouroboros - is one of the few Baroque memento mori symbols to survive the passage into the Victorian age: an image of eternity that was reinterpreted in the nineteenth century from admonition into a gesture of hope.
- Symbols & motifsUrn
The urn is the longest-lived mourning symbol of the European jewellery tradition - an antiquising vessel form that, since the late eighteenth century, has represented the ashes and thus, metonymically, the deceased person themselves.
- People & cultural historyTudor Mourning and Stuart Bequest Rings
The Tudor and Stuart era in England (1485–1714) is the birth period of the modern mourning-jewellery system - from the memento mori ring of Henry VIII's day, through the *funeral ring* bequests of the Elizabethan aristocracy, to the Stuart mourning ring following the execution of Charles I (1649) and the death of Charles II (1685).