Created in 2008, Victory Over Death translates Damien Hirst’s celebrated diamond-encrusted skull into the medium of printmaking. The work was produced as a photogravure etching from two plates, with highlights individually applied in gouache to evoke the reflective surfaces of the diamonds. This impression is signed and numbered from the edition of 58, with a further 12 artist’s proofs, and was published by The Paragon Press, London.

Set against a deep black ground, the skull appears to emerge from darkness, detached from any bodily or spatial context. The photogravure process records the intricate arrangement of the diamonds with remarkable precision, while the hand-coloured highlights intensify their apparent luminosity. The surrounding darkness concentrates attention upon the skull’s frontal gaze, creating a stark opposition between the material brilliance of the gemstones and the mortality represented by the human remains beneath them.

The image derives from Hirst’s sculpture For the Love of God, unveiled at White Cube in London in 2007. Constructed from a platinum cast of an eighteenth-century human skull and set with 8,601 diamonds, the sculpture brought together the traditional imagery of the memento mori with symbols of exceptional wealth, permanence and desire. In Victory Over Death, Hirst extends this confrontation through print, retaining the skull’s visual splendour while placing it within the reproducible structure of an edition.

The title suggests triumph, yet the work deliberately leaves the nature of that triumph unresolved. Diamonds may resist physical decay, but they cannot overcome the mortality embodied by the skull; similarly, the beauty and value of the object cannot remove its association with death. As the only etched and largest editioned interpretation of Hirst’s diamond skull, Victory Over Death occupies an important position within his sustained examination of mortality, belief, beauty and material value.

A detailed condition report is available upon request.