Vogelschedel Possibly 1912 - 1915

Jan Mankes made this etching of a bird's skull. Look how he's used a subtle palette to capture the texture of the bone. I can imagine Mankes, bent over the plate, carefully etching each line, almost caressing the surface. What was he thinking? Was he contemplating the fragility of life, the stark beauty of nature stripped bare? Maybe it was just there, and he was trying to draw it, pure and simple. Notice how the lines fade in and out, almost disappearing in places. It makes the skull seem like it’s emerging from a mist, or dissolving back into it. The skull is surrounded by wispy lines. Are they branches? Are they veins? Mankes is playing with that ambiguity between organic matter and its skeletal structure. It reminds me of other artists playing with symbols of mortality, like Holbein. There's something very quiet and tender about it. Mankes invites us to contemplate our own place in the cycle of life and death.