Tomb effigy

The religious beliefs of the societies that produced the earliest Egyptian effigies c. 2700–2200 BC (during Old Kingdom) are lost to time, but are assumed by modern archeologists to have commerated either fallen Gods or members of royalty.[2] Because these burial practices are prehistoric, their meaning can only be guessed at: modern archeologists see them as depictions intended to house the souls of the dead, intended to identify them as they travel through the realm of the dead.[2] The earliest known tomb effigy is that of Djoser (c. 2686–2613 BC), whose effigy was found in the worship chamber of an Egyptian pyramid. Usually they were smaller than life-size.

The Romans continued this tradition of idolatry, though they created many other types of effigies. Their faces are often clearly portraits of individuals.

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  Limestone Ka statue of Djoser from his pyramid serdab. 27th century BC
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  Coffin of Neskhons, c. 945-715 BC, Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio[3]
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  Replicas of the coffins of Tutankhamun, 1355–134 BC. The originals are in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Egypt

Recumbent effigies were a common tradition in the funerary art of the Etruscans, an advanced civilization and culture that developed in central Italy before 700 BC and flourished until the late second century BC.[4] Their effigies were typically carved in high relief,[4] and produced in a variety of materials, including ceramic, terracotta, marble, limestone and alabaster.[5] Structurally they fall into two categories: small squarish cinerary urns for cremation and near life-sized rectangular sarcophagi for burials, with cremation becoming more popular over the centuries.[5][6] Etruscan culture viewed the dead as no less completed than the living, and existing in a realm where they were forever in despair or forever enjoying material comforts.[5] From 500 BC the effigies perpetuated the memory of the deceased as they looked while alive, often lavishly dressed, and shown enjoying food and drink as if at a feast. They are typically shown as reclining (as if alive) rather than recumbent (as if dead), often propped on a pillow and leaning on their arm or elbow.[7]

In the 7th century the Etruscans began to depict human heads on canopic urns. When they started to bury their dead in the late 6th century, they used terracotta sarcophagi.[8] The sarcophagi were decorated with an image of the deceased reclining on the lid alone or with a spouse.[8] The Etruscan's style influenced late Ancient Greek funerary sculpture, especially in the manner of showing the dead as they had been in life, typically in the stele (stone or wooden slabs usually built as funerary markers) format.[9] Any aspects of the style were adapted by the Romans, and eventually spread as far as Western Asia.[7]

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  Sarcophagus of the Spouses, 530–510 BC. National Etruscan Museum, Rome, Italy
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  Sarcophagus in the Villa Corsini, Florence. 300-275 BC
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  Funerary urn, c. 210–90 BC. Museo archeologico nazionale Siena, Italy
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  Sarcophagus of Seianti Hanunia Tlesnasa, c. 150–130 BC. Painted terracotta, British Museum, London

The Romans adopted the Etruscan's tomb effigy formats, while still not yet showing the person commerated as being dead. They introduced a more a contemplative, spiritual and redemptive iconographical tone, emphasising the deceased's hierarchical role in society while alive.[10] Pre-historic Romans often cremated their dead, usually on a pyre, but later began to entomb the bodies while burning an effigy. The introduction of Christianity and its idea of the resurrections lead to a move away from creation in favour of burial.[5]

Romanesque tombs were produced in great numbers –especially in England and France– but over half were destroyed in later centuries during successive waves of iconoclasm in the early modern period, with further losses during the French revolution.[11]

he first life-sized, recumbent Medieval effigies (gisants) were produced in the 11th century. While the earliest examples are German,[12] the style was largely developed by French sculptors in the Romanesque style, during a period can ranges from c. 1080 to c. 1160.[13] By the 12th century, the German, Dutch, Belgian, Spanish effigies were following the forms and iconography of the French models,[11][13] when the middle of that century were adapting elements of the developing Gothic style.[14]

The 11th and 12th century European effigies were typically carved in low relief and were created for royalty and senior clerics. They show the deceased as they appeared as in life, with no signs of illness or death. The faces are idealised rather than accurate portrayals of the deceased, and often showed them much younger than they had been at death.[15] Gradually these became full high-relief effigies, usually recumbent as if dead and by the 14th century with hands together in prayer. The tombs and effigies were carved in stone, marble or wood, or cast in bronze or brass. Often the stone effigies were painted to simulate life, but this has long since worn away in the majority of surviving examples.

The first secular effigies appear in the early 13th century.[16] They were by then usually placed on flat marble slabs, supported by tomb-style chests (also known as tumba)[9] decorated with foliage, heraldry and architectural detailing.

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  Effigy of Berengaria of Navarre (d. 1230). L'Épau Abbey
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  ThirteenthTomb of Jean d'Aluye, French, 13th century. The Cloisters, New York[17]

Tomb of Philip the Bold, c. 1381–1410. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, France

The dukes of Burgundy were recognised throughout Europe as patrons of the arts, who through their cultivation of artists such as the sculptor Claus Sluter and the painters Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden (Rogier is thought to have painted some of the effigies), became key in the development of Early Netherlandish art and the wider Northern Renaissance.[18]

The iconography of Burgundian tombs develops forms and motifs found on monuments for French Kings in the Basilica of Saint-Denis, near Paris.[19] Although the now lost tomb of Joan of Brabant (c. 1457) is probably the earliest of the tombs,[20] the style became influential across Europe with the tomb of Philip the Bold (d. 1404), built over 30 years from 1381[21] by the sculptors Jean de Marville (d. 1389) and Sluter (d. 1405?) for the Chartreuse de Champmol, outside Dijon, which also houses the tombs of his son John the Fearless (d. 1419) and John's wife Margaret of Bavaria (d. 1424).[22][23] Philip's tomb is described by the art historian Frits Scholten as "one of the most magnificent tombs of the Late Middle Ages".[23]

The effigies on Burgundian-style tombs are characteristised by the deceased having naturalised faces, open eyes, angels above their heads, and animals (that may be dogs or lions) at their feet.[20] Philip's is made from polychromed white marble which gives him a more naturalised pallor. His head rests on a cushion and he has an angel at each side to watch over him, presumably guiding him into the afterlife. His open eyes are intended as an affirmation of his belief in the Resurrection, as are the prayers mouthed or in the books held by some of the weepers in the niches below the tomb monument's oblong chest.[24]

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  Isabella of Bourbon's effigy displayed with its 10 surviving pleurants
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  Detail of the Tomb of Philippe Pot (d. 1493) wearing amour and a heraldry shield.[25]
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  Tomb of Mary of Burgundy, 1501. Church of Our Lady, Bruges

Wooden effigies in St. Peter and St. Paul's church, Little Horkesley, England

Tomb effigies are the most numerous type of surviving English medieval statuary, and although England when through similar periods of iconoclasm, their number exceeds even that of France.[26] The large-scale production of British effigies began in the middle of the 13th century, as the result of the creation of a new patron class of knights, who although they were fewer than before, had become more wealthy.[27] A great number of ecclesiastical effigies were also produced in this period, but a majority were destroyed during both the iconoclasm waves and the Cromwellion Wars of the Three Kingdoms.[16]

Compared to French examples, the English 13th century knightly effigies are less rigid or statuesque, and have been described as reflecting a "more worldly and less spiritual outlook".[11] Three 13th century solid oak examples survive: in Pitchford (for John de Pitchford), Westminster Abbey (for William de Valence) and Salisbury Cathedral (for William Longespée).[28]

The cross-legged pose of many 13th or early 14th century English effigies was long supposed to imply that the deceased had served in the Crusades, had taken crusading vows, or more specifically had been a Knight Templar; but these theories are now rejected by scholars.[29]

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  Effigy in carved wood of a recumbent knight, c. 1280-1300. Southwark Cathedral, London
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  Oak tomb of Sir John de Pitchford (d. 1285). Pitchford, England
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  Effigy of a Norman knight, St. John's Church, Danbury, Essex, England
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  Cadaver effigy of John FitzAlan (died 1435). Arundel Castle, Sussex, England