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Curator: This drawing, from the British School, depicts a skeleton holding an arrow and an hourglass. The figure stands triumphantly over bones. What strikes you about it? Editor: The image feels like a statement about the inevitability of death. How do you interpret this work through a social lens? Curator: Absolutely. Consider the plague years and how art became a memento mori. This skeleton, though macabre, wields power. Is it a critique of social hierarchies collapsing in the face of death? What message about power do you think it conveys? Editor: I see it as a levelling of social status; death comes for everyone, regardless of class or privilege. Curator: Precisely! It’s a potent reminder that societal structures are fragile in the face of mortality. Editor: I hadn't considered the social critique element so explicitly. Curator: Art reveals its complexities when we explore both its aesthetic and historical contexts.