June 24. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



587 



assortment of gloves, his studio is provided, dili- 

 gently applies his compasses to insure exact 

 equality by means of a receipt, perchance imparts 

 some devotional expression, and the work is ready 

 to be transferred to stone. 



Mr. Petit, in the preface (page x.) to his Archi- 

 tectural Studies, after due praise, asserts — 



" That no sculptor anxious to advance his own re- 

 putation and art will ever set up a mediaeval statue as 

 his model. He may acknowledge its merits, and 

 learn much from a careful examination of it, hut still 

 he will not look up to its designer as his master and 

 guide." 



Again, the efforts of genius are cramped by 

 such uncompromising terms. The feet must un- 

 avoidably be directed towards the east ; still, 

 whatever the situation of the tomb may chance to 

 be, from whatever point it may be viewed, or 

 whether the light may fall on this side or on that, 

 no way of escape is open, and no ingenuity can be 

 employed to grapple with the uncontrollable ob- 

 struction. Portrait painters can choose the posi- 

 tion most favourable to the features, but the mo- 

 numental sculptor of the nineteenth century may 

 only exhibit what is generally shunned, the direct 

 profile ; the contour of the face, and the wide 

 expanse of brow, which might probably give the 

 most lively indications of intellectual power, ami- 

 ability of disposition, and devout tranquillity of 

 soul, must be sacrificed to this unbending law 

 " which altereth not." Sculptors, we are told, 

 should overcome difficulties ; but here they are 

 required to " strive with impossibilities, yea, get 

 the better of them." Whether painted windows, 

 or some other ornament, or a tomb alone in har- 

 mony with the architecture (the form and features 

 of the individual being elsewhere preserved), may 

 constitute a more desirable memorial, is a separate 

 question, but as statues are only admissible in a 

 recumbent posture, some little latitude must be 

 allowed. Like our reformers in higher things, it 

 behoves us to discard what is objectionable in art, 

 while we cherish that which is to be admired. 

 Instead of treading in the footsteps of those lofty 

 spirits, we should endeavour to follow the same 

 road. Fully appreciating their excellences, let 

 us avoid the distorted drawing of their brilliant 

 glass, their irregularities in architectural design, 

 the irreverence of their carving, and the con- 

 ventionalism of their monumental sculpture. 



C. T. 



I agree with C. T. in thinking that the usual 

 recumbent figure on mediaeval tombs was intended 

 to represent a dead body, and more particularly 

 to represent the body as it had lain in state, or 

 had been borne to the grave ; and I will add one 

 or two additional reasons for this opinion. In 

 the description in Speed, of the intended monu- 

 ment of Henry VIII., taken from a MS. given 



to Speed by that industrious herald master, Charles 

 Lancaster, the following direction occurs : — 



" Item, upon the same basement shall he made two 

 tombes of blacke touch, that is to say, on either side 

 one, and upon the said tombes of blacke touch shall 

 be made the image of the King and Queen, on both 

 sides, not as death [dead], but as persons sleeping, 

 because to shewe that famous princes leaving behind 

 them great fame never doe die, and shall be in royall 

 apparels after the antique manner." — Speed's Hist, of 

 Great Brit., p. 1037. ed. 1632. 



The distinction here taken between a dead and 

 a sleeping figure, and the reason assigned for the 

 latter, show, I think, that at that time a recum- 

 bent figure generally was supposed to represent 

 death. In a monument of Sir Roger Aston, at 

 Cranford, Middlesex, in Lysons' Environs of Lon- 

 don, the knight and his two wives are represented 

 praying, and by the side of the knight lies the 

 infant son who had died in his lifetime. In the 

 monument of Pope Innocent VIII. (Pistolesi, II 

 Vaticano, vol. i. plate 63.), the Pope is in one part 

 represented in a living action, and in another as 

 lying on his tomb, and from the contrast which 

 would thus be afforded between life and death, 

 the latter representation seems to indicate death. 



The hands raised in prayer are accounted for 

 by C. T. Open eyes, I think, may be intended 

 to express, by their direction towards heaven, the 

 hope in which the deceased died. This is sug- 

 gested by the description of the funeral car of 

 Henry V. 



" Preparations were made to convey the body of 

 Henry from Rouen to England. It was placed within 

 a car, on which reclined his figure made of boiled 

 leather, elegantly painted. A rich crown of gold was 

 on its head. The right hand held a sceptre, and the 

 left a golden ball. The face seemed to contemplate the 

 heavens." — -Turner's Hist, of Eng., vol. ii. p. 465. 



I must, however, add that on referring to 

 Monstrelet, I doubt whether Turner does not go 

 too far in this last particular. Monstrelet merely 

 says, "le visage vers le ciel." (Monst. Chron. 

 vol. i. 325. ed. 1595.) Speed adds an additional 

 circumstance: "The body (of this figure) was 

 clothed with a "purple roabe furred with ermine." 

 From the mutilated state of the tomb it is impos- 

 sible to say how far the recumbent effigy resem- 

 bled this boiled figure, but it is evidently just 

 such a representation of the king as might have 

 been laid on his tomb, and so far it tends to sup- 

 port the opinion that the effigy on a tomb re- 

 presents the deceased as he had lain in state, or 

 was borne to and placed in his tomb, an opinion 

 fully borne out by the agreement which, in some 

 cases, has been found to exist between the effigy 

 on a tomb and the body discovered within it, or 

 between the effigy and the description of the body 

 as it had lain in state. See the tombs of King 



