Pirate Art To Go On Show

M@
By M@ Last edited 213 months ago

Last Updated 28 February 2007

Pirate Art To Go On Show

Yargh, yargh, yargh! Avast. Yargh!

Sorry. What is it about pirates that's so compelling?

The National Gallery's summer blockbuster, Dutch Portraits in the Age of Rembrandt and Franz Hals, will include the image of a skeleton pored over by surgeons. The skeleton is that of an unknown pirate, who was caught, executed and donated to Dutch science in 1615.

So that's what they mean by 15 men on a dead man's chest. Yargh!

The Osteology Lesson of Dr Sebastiaen Egbertsz (1619) by Nicolaes Eliasz Pickenoy, is known as "the laughing skeleton" in the Netherlands.

So that's what they mean by 'rib tickler'. Yargh!

The skull and its attendant cross bones will be joined by other Dutch masters in the exhibition, which begins on 27 June at the National Gallery.