Thank you! This thing was on the back of my head for a while. The model of the skeleton was probably as old the as my picture is old now :D You can see on the painting that the model was repaired with rusty wire, just to keep it in one piece for a little longer:) To be fair - I was the one to wrap a bit of fabric around his scull - the back of the head was missing, and I just saw the 'Girl with the pearl' - so yeah... there is period idea there!
Let's see... so Tudors, 15th - 16th century, Vermeer - died in the second half of 17th century... Very much like this, and I appreciate that you noticed. He had apple between his teeth too(I didn't got into enough details to actually properly show this). But idea with apple was from classic Dutch still-life's. Like my favourite Willem Claesz Heda - master of still-life's. He painted food so appetisingly that your mouth would start to watering by one glance of his artwork:)
Circle back to my bony friend - need an update! Plus I think I need to try to paint again, I very much miss that:)