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THE UNSOLVED MYSTERY OF GOYA'S MISSING SKULL

THE ENIGMA

Dionisio Fierros (1827-1894) was a Spanish Romantic painter who painted a “Vanitas”, an allegorical still life, for the Marquis of San Adrián of Navarre in 1849. 

It was not a very robust work of art, especially in an era of great romanticism and drama. 

It was a traditional "vanitas" with a skull, which was the most common symbol of the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death. It was a human skull, depicted in a three-quarter view, and it had no jaw. It rested on a green carpet. The skull had many dental defects. The colour used was a roasted yellow. 

It would have been a rather boring 44 x 37 cm oil painting on canvas if it had not had three words written in sepia ink on the back of the wooden frame: "Skull of Goya".

Report by Karla Ingleton Darocas (KarlaDarocas.com) (c) SpainLifestyle.com