Perugia - Duomo Memento Mori Altar (Scaniverse)

This high-Baroque marble altar frontal (*paliotto*) from the **Cathedral of San Lorenzo (Duomo di Perugia)** serves as a funerary monument and altar of suffrage, pairing episcopal honors with poignant *memento mori* symbolism. The structure features white carved marble set against dark, variegated marble inlays that heighten its dramatic visual contrast. The central relief panel honors a deceased bishop, displaying sacred insignia including a richly decorated mitre, a pastoral crozier, a cross staff, liturgical drapery, and an open text. Flanking this central panel are two recessed lateral wings, each bearing a deeply carved skull draped in a funeral shroud above ribbon-tied crossed bones. Typical of 17th- and 18th-century Counter-Reformation iconography, this composition emphasizes both the spiritual authority of the episcopate and the universal inevitability of death, urging the faithful to pray for departed souls.