A decade earlier Philip the Good had commissioned two such monuments: a triple tomb for his great-grandparents Louis of Mâle and Margaret of Brabant and his grandmother Margaret of Flanders in Lille, and a tomb for his great-aunt Joanna of Brabant in Brussels-the latter of stone and wood, however, but made to resemble gilt copper alloy.

1464 may show the impact of gilt copper alloy relief tomb monuments on contemporary imagination. This aim was reflected in many aspects of tomb design, with attention being drawn to the good works of the person commemorated.Ī miniature in a Flemish manuscript of c. The value of the prayers of the living to the purification of the dead in Purgatory was a central tenet of medieval faith, and it was therefore vital to a believer that prayers for his or her soul should be said and masses sung. Once a person was dead and in Purgatory, the sentence could be shortened by prayer and intercession. Indeed many regarded this as their main purpose. Augustine recognised, as well as being a solace to the living, monuments served the purpose of providing assistance to the dead. The secular aspects of medieval monuments, with their emphasis on status and family pride, are frequently more striking than the sacred aspects often they dominate the composition and in many cases they have been more extensively studied. This paper explores the main functions of memorials and how they influenced iconographical aspects of late medieval tomb design, specifically English brasses and incised slabs. 1400) in Braga Cathedral in northern Portugal, which has recently been the subject of detailed technical analysis.

To demonstrate the splendour of such memorials and the techniques involved, a case study is provided of the virtually unknown, but internationally important monument of Prince Afonso (d. It shows how magnificent such monuments could be, how widespread this type of monument once was and how it was favoured within certain families and locations, but also how much we have lost. This preliminary materiality-based survey comprises 119 extant and lost examples throughout Europe in the 350-year period to 1430, starting with the monument to Rudolph of Swabia (d.

However, many more have been destroyed, especially in France, and are known of only through antiquarian sources. Some survive, especially in England and Germany. Probably the most prestigious monuments produced in the Middle Ages were those constructed from (semi-)precious metals, sometimes enamelled or inlaid with real or fictive jewels.

Effigies by William K. Wells