Arranging the skeletons and putting them into poses was a custom of both the anatomical iconographic tradition and of museums.

An example of the iconographic tradition can be seen in Anatomia corporis humani iuxta circulationem sanguinis of 1696 by Pierre Dionis (1673-1718) (digital copy), in an illustration with two skeletons seen from behind in which the adult turns his head as if to invite the child to follow. Dionis was the physician of the Court of the Sun King, famous for having been called to his deathbed: he suggested amputating the gangrenous leg caused by gout, but it was too late. Dionis was named lecturer at the Royal Garden by the king, precisely about blood circulation, which had been recently discovered by Harvey and debated in Paris.

An example of skeleton composition in a museum collection can be seen in Thesaurus anatomicus by Frederik Ruysch (1638-1731) (digital copy). The Dutch physician perfected a technique for preserving organs by introducing a solidifiable mass into the blood vessels, thereby also contributing to demonstrate the ubiquity of the vascular system. The liquor balsamicus was made of thickened pig’s blood, Prussian blue and mercury oxide. Thanks to his unique embalming technique, he created a remarkable anatomical collection, famous enough to be visited and later acquired by Peter the Great and to be the inspiration for Leopardi’s Small Moral Works.
The collection was characterised by the composition of anatomical organs, in which Ruysch’s daughter collaborated. She was a still-life painter, so celebrated that she became the official painter of the court of the Elector Palatine of Bavaria: with an artistic eye, Ruysch prepared the display of organs and decorated them with flowers and lace.
The collection is illustrated in the engravings by Cornelius Huyberts in the Thesaurus anatomicus.

In the first illustration, three skeletons in a mournful pose surround a mountain of… kidney stones. The mountain is decorated with bare trees made up of embalmed arterial branches. The skeletons are of four-month-old foetuses and they represent a macabre warning about the precariousness of existence.
The skeleton on the right dries its tears with a handkerchief, made from "membranula" of very fine arteries, and it seems to be crying about human destiny, as stated in the caption which accompanied the original: "Homo natus de muliere, brevi vivens tempore, repletus multis miseriis" (Man born of woman, short-lived, filled with many miseries).
The skeleton on the left holds a scythe and the caption states, as if it were death speaking: "Nec parcit imbellis juventae poplitibus" (It does not spare the knees of the faint-hearted youth).
The skeleton on top of the mountain looks up; in the right hand, it holds a pearl necklace and states "Cur ea diligere velim, quae sunt in mundo?" (Why do I want to love that which exists in the world?)
A bird on top of a rock on the right: is it there for decoration or to represent the ancient symbolism of the soul? The composition used vivid colours, of which red wax was dominant (pt. 1, pp. 8-9).

In the first illustration of the third part, another mountain, with four skeletons around it, again representing vanitas vanitatum, with symbols like the ephemeris in the hand of the one lying, signifying the brevity of life "mane esse infans, juvenis meridie, vesperi senio confici & mori" (enfant in the morning, youth in the afternoon, consumed by age in the evening and then death). The captions in the original are significant: "Quid sumus, aut quidnam nostri post funera restat? Adspice: nil aliud, nuda nisi ossa, vides calculus, et vastus lapidum, quem cernis, acervus, quam sit vita hominum plena dolore, docet. Exhibet hoc tabulis, hoc verbis explicat, urbis Ruischius Amstellae laus, medicumque decus" (What are we or what ever is left of us after death? Observing: You do not see anything else, if only the bones, gallstones and the huge pile of stones that you glimpse which show how much human life is full of pain. Ruysch, praised and decorated by the medicine of the city of Amsterdam, shows with illustrations and explains all of this with words) (pt. 3, c. A3r).