In a time of rampant disease and war with higher mortality rates than today, the image of a skull or skeleton, called a memento mori, offered a reminder to be good in the face of death and eternal damnation.

Two quotations in Latin and Greek surround the central picture: “Perhaps there is a safe place against all threats, but there is no fortress safe from death’s rule. Whether we merit the scepter or plow the earth with the hoe, all of us must pay death its due,” and “Each should remember that he stretches out mortal limbs.”