The Skull

The skull is a bony structure composed of two distinct parts: the neurocranium (8 bones in the upper part) and the splanchnocranium (14 bones in the lower part). It is a recurring motif of inspiration in art, where it symbolizes destructive time and death, particularly in painting in symbolic still lifes known as "Vanitas" (or "Memento Mori," or "Remember that you will die"). In the field of physical anthropology, craniology has studied the shape and variations of the human skull since the 19th century.