Conservation: revealing a hidden skeleton of death | Barniz de Pasto cabinet | V&A

Can you help us crack the code?

Follow curator Nick, conservator Dana and conservation scientist Lucia on their journey to unravel the mysteries of this fascinating object. Made of a rare plant resin called mopa mopa and decorated with a technique known as Barniz de Pasto, the intricate piece is unlike anything else in our collection.

When it was acquired in 2015, a routine x-ray revealed a remarkable discovery: a vivid skeleton of death, or memento mori, lay hidden beneath a layer of paint, applied some 300 years after it was made.

Watch as the overpaint is finally removed to reveal the skeleton in all his glory, along with a cryptic message – the final part of the puzzle.

00:00 A secret skeleton
01:27 Colombian plant and animal life
02:03 What is mopa mopa?
04:14 European sea-monster or Andean deity?
05:10 Science conservation discoveries
06:08 Alterations and repairs
07:30 X-raying the cabinet lid
08:02 Micro computer tomography and XRF mapping
10:02 Memento mori
13:04 The last reveal – removing the overpaint
16:30 Lettering and the skeleton appear
17:34 The final puzzle – cracking the code

[marioalonsojerez]

With my coworkers figured out a short poem (we are art historians from the Colonial Art Museum in Santiago, Chile) that reads as follows: "Es la mala muerte escasa / con arco, guadaña y flecha / y de rato en rato flecha / las puertas de mi casa." [Is the bad death scarse / with arc, scythe and arrow / from time to time shoots / at the doors of my house].

[Curionimbus]

First, I believe the animal is a Coipu or CoyPu, also known as a Nutria. Often used in Christian art, to represent the virtues of faith and living a humble or simplistic life.

Second, the symbols used seem to be referencing the side panels, in addition to the underside of the lid:

The wings in the last line seem to be the "Pelican of piety", or motherhood/nurturing.

The bow, a reference to the "Vigilia" panel, symbolizing purposeful wakefulness/observation. It is missing the arrows, which appear in death's left hand; A single one appears, two characters away, to the right of the small sickle.

The pink doors or gate, could be a reference to the doors of death.

Tangentially, it would make sense that the Andean sea god "Viracocha" would be seen in such religiously inspired memento mori. Evangelization of the Incas, caused many instances of the creator deity, to be used in place of "God". They too, created humans from stones, perhaps symbolized in the first picture, by "hueso" or bone.

The two buildings, one in cool hues and the other all white, could potentially represent dusk and dawn, night and morning or sunset and sunrise. The appearance of the rooster/bird on top of the "all white" building and it's absence on the "blue" one, leads me to suspect as much.

Lastly, the overlapping ED in the last line, is most likely a ligature of the word "de" or "of" in Spanish. It is often used in signage. There is a chance it could represent a phonetic pronunciation, but more likely it is referring to a place.

Sorry for the rant, but I hope you find out and let us all know sometime. Cheers and all the best in your sleuthing!

[marioalonsojerez]

On secod try we realized the meaning of the poem "Escribe la muerte escasa / con arco, guadaña y flecha, / de rato en rato flecha / a las puertas de mi casa" Tranlated as ""Writes the scarce death / with bow, scythe and arrow, / from time to time shoots / at the doors of my house". Is an octosyllabic poem (redondilla) with a A-B-B-A rhyme. :o

[teddyboy]

The colors are so vibrant and unexpected for something that’s 400 years old, it’s amazing!

[music_by_carlos]

i bet they never knew we would be able to tell how many times this was painted over, in the past they were like NO ONE WILL EVER it was painted over 20 times haha

[NinaHansen]

This is delightful! Please, please give us a final reveal when you have retouched it.

[hc]

It’s tough to decide to take one set of artwork away forever in hopes of seeing a design that another artist had obviously decided to paint over and change. For educational purposes, I get it. But that’s definitely not an easy choice to make. I don’t know if it were my choice that I’d be able to do it. Beautiful object ❤

[findlydesign]

Are we going to get an update on what the inscription means? So fascinating❤

[katharine]

This is a wonderful film. I greatly appreciated seeing how conservation at this high level depends on a multidisciplinary group of specialists and am grateful for the clarity of their explanations. Thank you!

[estherhuser]

I wish these videos would be 5 hours long! Thank you so much for such wonderful content.

[GiselleMetcalf-Grosso]

What a treat to have this to watch on Halloween!! Thank You! 🙂

[sariahmarier]

I hope to see you crack the code. What a wonderful object.

[kimstelly]

I am always so excited to see this work being done. I found my love of art and making art later in life, and I have, over the last few years through these videos from museums and restoration professionals, realized that my background in science has a place in restoration. So wonderful!❤

[aaron]

I expect it's original owner would have delighted in seeing that exquisite object at every use. Extraordinarily beautiful.

[tortoiseperson]

Beautiful and fascinating- I would love to know the final answer!

[meganmajor]

Captivating! Perfectly themed for Halloween. I'm excited to see images of the revealed underside of the lid on the website. :o)

[stephenmurtough]

This is beautiful, gorgeous, and fascinating - thank you, V&A team :)

[threegoodeyes]

Damn. That was an unsatisfying ending.

[Littlebluebirdie]

What a beautiful object, amazing to think of all the different things the owner would have filled the drawers with and how treasured it was

[photographing]

Would love an inscription update. Seems like the pictures would be part of reading it - as you say, they are in line, and the only written parts are small grammatical words connecting the main ideas of the pictures or if those represent sounds that would build words (where are 2-3 picts between words, maybe?)...