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EFFIGIES, MONUMENTAL

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Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 11 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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EFFIGIES, MONUMENTAL . An " effigy " (See also:Lat. effigies, from effingere, to See also:fashion) is, in See also:general, a material See also:image or likeness of a See also:person; and the practice of See also:hanging or burning See also:people " in effigy," i.e. their semblance only, preserves the more general sense of the word. Such representations may be portraits, caricatures or See also:models. But, apart from general usages of the See also:term (see e.g. See also:WAX FIGURES), it is more particularly applied in the See also:history of See also:art to a particular class of sculptured figures, in the See also:flat or the See also:round, associated with See also:Christian sepulchral monuments, dating from the 12th See also:century. The earliest of these attempts at commemorative See also:portraiture were executed in See also:low See also:relief upon See also:coffin-lids of See also:stone or purbeck See also:marble, some portions of the designs for the most See also:part being executed by means of incised lines, cut upon the raised figure. Gradually, with the increased See also:size and the greater architectural dignity of monumental structures, effigies attained to a high See also:rank as See also:works of art, so that before the See also:close of the 13th century very See also:noble examples of figures of this See also:order are found to have been executed in full relief; and, about the same See also:period, similar figures also began to be engraved, either upon monumental slabs of stone or marble, or upon plates of See also:metal, which were affixed fo the surfaces of slabs that were laid in the pavements of churches. Engraved plates of this class, known as " See also:Brasses " (see BRASSES, MONUMENTAL), continued in favour until the era of the See also:Reformation, and in See also:recent times their use has been revived. It seems probable that the introduction and the prevalence of flat engraved memorials, in See also:place of commemorative effigies in relief, was due, in the first instance, to the inconvenience resulting from increasing See also:numbers of raised stones on the See also:pavement of churches; while the comparatively small cost of engraved plates, their high See also:artistic capabilities, and their durability, combined to secure for them the popularity they unquestionably enjoyed. If considerably less numerous than contemporary incised slabs and engraved brasses, effigies sculptured in relief—with some exceptions in full relief—continued for centuries to constitute the most important features in many See also:medieval monuments. In the 13th century, their origin being apparently derived from the endeavour to combine a monumental effigy with a monumental See also:cross upon the same sepulchral stone (whether in See also:sculpture or by incised lines), parts only of the human figure sometimes were represented, such as the See also:head or bust, and occasionally also the feet; in some of the See also:early examples of this curious class the cross See also:symbol was not introduced, and after awhile See also:half-length figures became See also:common. Except in very rare instances, that most important See also:element, genuine See also:face-portraiture, is not to be looked for, in even the finest sculptured effigies, earlier than about the See also:middle of the 15th century.

In works of the highest order of art, indeed, the memorials of personages of the most exalted rank, effigies from an early period in their existence may be considered occasionally to have been portraits pfoperly so called; and yet even in such works as these an approximately correct general resemblance but too frequently appears to have been all that was contemplated or desired. At the same See also:

time, in the earliest monumental effigies we possess contemporaryexamples of See also:vestments, See also:costume,l See also:armour, weapons, royal and knightly insignia, and other See also:personal appointments and accessories, in all of which accurate fidelity has been certainly observed with scrupulous care and See also:minute exactness. Thus, since the monumental effigies of See also:England are second to none in artistic merit, while they have been pre-served in far greater numbers, and generally in better See also:condition than those in other countries, they represent in unbroken continuity an unrivalled See also:series of See also:original personal representations of successive generations, very many of them being, in i It is well known that the costume of effigies nearly always represented what was actually worn by the remains of the person commemorated, when prepared for interment and when lying in See also:state; and, in like manner, the aspect of the lifeless countenance, even if not designedly reproduced by medieval " image " makers, may See also:long have exercised a powerful See also:influence upon their ideas of 'consistent monumental portraiture.the most significant acceptation of that term, veritable contemporaneous portraits. Once esteemed to be simply See also:objects of antiquarian curiosity, and either altogether disregarded or too often subjected to injurious indignity, the monumental effigies in England long awaited the formation of a just estimate of their true See also:character and their consequent See also:worth in their capacity as authorities for face-portraiture. In the original See also:contract for the construction of the See also:monument at See also:Warwick to See also:Richard See also:Beauchamp, the fifth See also:earl, who died in 1439, it is provided that an effigy of the deceased noble should be executed in See also:bronze gilt, with all possible care, by the most skilful and experienced artists of the time; and the details of the armour and the ornaments of the figure are specified with minute precision. It is remarkable, however, that the effigy itself is described only in the general and indefinite terms—" an image of a See also:man armed. There is no See also:provision that the effigy should be " an image " of the earl; and much less is anything said as to its being such a " counterfeit presentment " of the features and person of the living man, as the contemporaries of See also:Shakespeare had learned to expect in what they would accept as true portraiture. The effigy, almost as perfect as when it See also:left the sculptor's hands, still bears See also:witness, as well to the conscientious care with which the conditions of the contract were fulfilled, as to the eminent ability of the artists employed. So See also:complete is the See also:representation of the armour, that this effigy might be considered actually to have been equipped in the earl's own favourite suit of the finest See also:Milan See also:steel. The See also:cast of the figure also was evidently studied from what the earl had been when in See also:life, and the countenance is sufficiently marked and endowed with the unmistakable attributes of personal character. Possibly such a resemblance may have been the -highest aim in the image-making of the period, some-what before the middle of the 15th century. Three-quarters of a century later, a decided step towards fidelity in true portraiture is shown to have been taken, when, in his will (1510 A.D.), See also:Henry VII. spoke of the effigies of himself and of his See also:late See also:queen, See also:Elizabeth of See also:York, to be executed for their monument, as " an image of our figure and another of hers." The existing effigies in the Beauchamp See also:chapel and in Henry VII.'s chapel, with the passages just quoted from the contract made by the executors of the Lancastrian earl, strikingly illustrate the See also:gradual development of the See also:idea of true personal portraiture in monumental effigies, during the course of the 15th and at the commencement of the 16th century in England.

Study of the royal effigies still preserved must commence in See also:

Worcester See also:Cathedral with that of See also:King See also:John. This earliest example of a series of effigies of which the See also:historical value has never yet been duly appreciated is See also:rude as a See also:work of art, and yet there is on it the impress of such individuality as demonstrates that the sculptor did his best to represent the king. Singularly See also:fine as achievements of the sculptor's art are the effigies of Henry III., Queen Eleanor of See also:Castile, and her See also:ill-fated son See also:Edward II., the two former in See also:Westminster See also:Abbey, the last in See also:Gloucester cathedral; and of their fidelity also as portraits no doubt can be entertained. In like manner the effigies of Edward III. and his queen Philippa, and those of their See also:grandson Richard II. and his first • See also:consort, See also:Anne of Bohemia (all at Westminster), and of their other grandson, Henry of See also:Lancaster, with his second consort, See also:Joan of See also:Navarre,. at Canterbury—all convince us that they are true portraits. Next follow the effigies of Henry VII. and Elizabeth of York,—to be succeeded, and the royal series to be completed, by the effigies of Queen Elizabeth and See also:Mary See also:Stuart, all of them in Westminster Abbey. Very instructive would be a close comparison between the two last-named works and the painted portraits of the See also:rival queens, especially in the See also:case of Mary, the pictures of whom differ so remarkably fromssnese As the 15tn century advanced, the rank of the personage represented and the character of the art that distinguishes any effigy goes far to determine its portrait qualities. Still later, when more exact face-portraiture had become a recognized element, sculptors must be supposed to have aimed at the See also:production of such resemblance as their art would enable them to give to their works; and accordingly, when we compare effigies with painted portraits of the same personages, we find that they corroborate one another. The prevalence of portraiture in the effigies of the 16th and 17th centuries, when their art generally underwent a palpable decline, by no means raises all works of this class, or indeed the See also:majority of them, to the dignity of true portraits; on the contrary, in these effigies, as in those of earlier periods, it is the character of the art in each particular example that affects its merit, value and authority as a portrait. In judging of these latter effigies, however, we must estimate them by the See also:standard of art of their own era; and, as a general See also:rule, the effigies that are the best as works of art in their own class are the best also and the most faithful in their portraiture. The earlier effigies, usually produced without any See also:express aim at exact portraiture, as we now employ that expression, have nevertheless strong claims upon our veneration. Often their sculpture is very noble; and even when they are rudest as works of art, there is rarely lacking a rough grandeur about them, as exhibited in the fine bold figure of See also:Fair See also:Rosamond's son, Earl See also:William of the Long See also:Sword, which reposes in such dignified serenity in his own cathedral at See also:Salisbury. These effigies may not bring us closely face to face with remote generations, but they do place before us true images of what the men and See also:women of those generations were.

Observant students of monumental effigies will not fail to appreciate the singular felicity with which the medieval sculptors adjusted their compositions to the recumbent position in which their " images " necessarily had to be placed. Equally worthy of See also:

notice is the manner in which many monumental effigies, particularly those of comparatively early date, are found to have assumed an aspect neither living nor lifeless, and yet impressively life-like. The See also:sound See also:judgment also, and the See also:good See also:taste of those early sculptors, were signally exemplified in their excluding, almost without exception, the more extravagant fashions In the costume of their era from their monumental sculpt_:re, and introducing only the simpler but not less characteristic styles of See also:dress and appointments. Monumental effigies, as commonly understood, represent recumbent figures, and the accessories of the effigies themselves have been adjusted to that position. With the exceptions when they appear on one See also:side resting on the See also:elbow (as in the case of See also:Thomas See also:Owen (d. 1598) and See also:Sir Thomas Heskett (d. 1605), both in Westminster Abbey), these effigies See also:lie on their backs, and as a general rule (except in the case of episcopal figures represented in the See also:act of See also:benediction, or of princes and warriors who sometimes hold a See also:sceptre or a sword) their hands are uplifted and conjoined as in supplication. The crossed-legged attitude of numerous armed effigies of the era of See also:mail-armour has been supposed to imply the personages so represented to have been crusaders or Knights of the See also:Temple; but in either case the supposition is unfounded and inconsistent with unquestionable facts. Much beautiful feeling is conveyed by figures of ministering angels being introduced as in the act of supporting and smoothing the pillows or cushions that are placed in very many instances to give support to the heads of the recumbent effigies. The animals at the feet of these effigies, which frequently have an heraldic significance, enabled the sculptors, with equal propriety and effectiveness, to overcome one of the See also:special difficulties inseparable from the recumbent position. In general, monumental effigies were carved in stone or marble, or cast in bronze, but occasionally they were of See also:wood: such is the effigy of See also:Robert Curthose, son of William I. (d.

1135), whose See also:

altar See also:tomb in Gloucester cathedral was probably set up about 1320. In addition to recumbent statues, upright figures must receive notice here, especially those set in See also:wall-monuments in churches mainly. These usually consisted in half-length figures, seen full-face, placed in a See also:recess within an architectural setting more or less elaborate. They belong mainly to the 16th and 17th centuries. Among the many examples in old St See also:Paul's cathedral (destroyed in the See also:Great See also:Fire of 1666) were those of See also:Dean See also:Colet (d. 1 giq), William See also:Aubrey (1595) and See also:Alexander See also:Nowell (d. 16oi). In St See also:Giles's, Cripplegate, is the similarly designed effigy of John See also:Speed (d. 1629); while that of John See also:Stow (d. 1605) is a full-length, seated figure. This, like the figure of Thomas Owen, is in See also:alabaster, but since its erection has always been described as terra-cotta—a material which came into considerable favour for the purpose of busts and half-lengths towards the end of the 16th century, imported, of course, from abroad. Sometimes the stone monuments were painted to resemble life, as in the monuments to Shakespeare and John See also:Combe (the latter now over-painted See also:white), in See also:Holy Trinity See also:Church, Stratfordon-See also:Avon.

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