Phrenology Skull

• Year2016
• Dimensions
  Frame: 12cm x 12cm x 1.2cm / 4.6" x 4.6" x .5"
  Embossed panel: 7cm x 7cm / 2.7" x 2.7"
• MediaEmbossed pewter, paper illustration
• SOLD 
• Available-

Phrenology was a pseudoscience, popular in the mid 19th Century, that suggested one’s personality and character could be predicted by delicate measurements of the skull. It was a primitive form of neuroscience that would eventually be discarded, though thankfully for collectors of vintage curiosities, it left behind a legacy of gorgeously detailed phrenology busts. For this piece I have embossed a skull and cut away the metal in the brain area to reveal a vintage illustration, showing the areas of the brain that were supposedly responsible for different kinds of thoughts and character traits. It has been framed in an ornate black resin frame.