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National Gallery of Art

  • Visit

    • Plan Your Visit
    • Accessibility
    • Visiting with Kids
    • Food and Drink
    • Tours and Guides
    • Explore the Campus

    Open today 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
    Admission is always free

    6th and Constitution Ave NW 
    Washington, DC 20565

    Sculpture Garden Extended Hours

    Open late until 8:00 p.m. on select nights

    Through September 5

  • Exhibitions & Events

    • Exhibitions
    • Calendar
    • Kid-Friendly Events

    America’s 250th

    Celebrating American art and artists

  • Art & Artists

    • Artworks
    • Artists
    • Stories
    • Fun and Games
    • Educational Resources
    • Research

    Open Call

    Artists Reimagining the Collection

    Meet the 50 makers selected from more than 1,600 submissions

Utility

  • Support
  • Shop
  • Become a Member

  • Visit

    • Plan Your Visit
    • Accessibility
    • Visiting with Kids
    • Food and Drink
    • Tours and Guides
    • Explore the Campus

    Open today 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
    Admission is always free

    6th and Constitution Ave NW 
    Washington, DC 20565

    Sculpture Garden Extended Hours

    Open late until 8:00 p.m. on select nights

    Through September 5

  • Exhibitions & Events

    • Exhibitions
    • Calendar
    • Kid-Friendly Events

    America’s 250th

    Celebrating American art and artists

  • Art & Artists

    • Artworks
    • Artists
    • Stories
    • Fun and Games
    • Educational Resources
    • Research

    Open Call

    Artists Reimagining the Collection

    Meet the 50 makers selected from more than 1,600 submissions

Utility

  • Support
  • Shop
  • Become a Member

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  • Open 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
  • See extended hours

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    Rizson

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    Twelve men and perhaps a child, who is bald and wears a brown robe, kneel, sit, or prostrate themselves in front of an altar piled with three skulls in this almost square painting. All the men appear to have pale, peachy skin and wear tattered robes with hoods in shades of sky or slate blue, peanut brown, terracotta orange, or silvery gray. The man closest to the altar holds up a long cross so it almost touches the skulls. He kneels and bows deeply so his hood completely hides his face. Three more men are near him in this grouping, and another rests on the broken base of a column as he reaches forward, head bowed. The child and two taller adults stand in the background along the left edge of the composition, and four more men are clustered in the lower right corner. The two to the left in this final group have chains wrapped around their torsos and are barefoot. The leftmost reclines on one hip and looks at the open book he holds. The other two men kneel. Carnation-pink and sapphire-blue robes lie across the two steps where these four people gather. Another book and glimmering objects, perhaps pieces of armor and maybe another skull, are heaped in a pile to the left. Beyond all the people, a mint-green curtain just taller than the standing men hangs across the lower portion of a row of columns in front of pearl-white walls with molding, columns, and an arched doorway. Some brushstrokes are loose, especially in the clothing and background.
    Michel-François Dandré-Bardon, The Adoration of the Skulls, c. 1733/1734, oil on canvas, Gift of Lewis Einstein, 1956.3.1

    The Adoration of the Skulls

    The Adoration of the Skulls

    Michel-François Dandré-Bardon · c. 1733/1734 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1956.3.1

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