{[Gothic Art (3) [continued (4)]] Saintly Kings [continued (4)]}[15th March 1991]

[Redbook8:340-341][19910315:1000bb]{[Gothic Art (3) [continued (4)]] Saintly Kings [continued (4)]}[15th March 1991]

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[continued]

‘These tombs were intensely personal memorials, and predictably heraldry – as an organised system virtually a creation of the 13^th century – played an important part. Louis IX’s monuments included sarcophagi some of which were decorated with small figures, traditionally called “weeper-figures” and intended to remind the spectator of the relatives of the dead person. But the most striking piece of personalisation, which became common from now on, lay in the treatment of the effigy itself. Here half a century of experiment in facial characterisation bore fruit in the endowment of effigies with “portrait” faces. In many cases, of course, there is no evidence that the face is a real portrait, but often a face displays distinct characterisation aimed at making it look different from other faces, and so unique. Ultimately (towards the end of the 14^th century) evidence indicates that artists could and did take death masks.

*

*[– ibid (Encylopaedia of Visual Art 4: 605-607)]

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