Memento Mori.

Painting, 17 x 12 cm (visible), vellum, signed and dated "1796 J. Rösler fecit" on a trompe-l'oeil sheet painted in the center.

Passe-partout, wooden frame (not studied outside frame).

Death holds in one hand an hourglass over which a snake passes and in the other hand an arrow that points to a young richly clothed character. He is seated at a table with a watch, a candle and a sheet on which is inscribed the sentence: "O Mors quam amara est/ memoria tua homini pacem/ habenti in substantiis" [Vulgate 41, i.e. Oh death, how bitter it is for a man who is at peace with his existence to contemplate thee]. Rössler (Görlitz 1775-1845 Dresden) was a German portrait painter. He studied at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts with Giovanni Battista Casanova. After visiting Paris, he stayed in Rome from 1803 until 1807 then went back to Germany where he became a professor of painting in Dresden.