1. Inside/Out
Tomb Sculpture and Concealment
5th Annual Ards Colloquium,
Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht, Thursday 15 and Friday 16 November 2018

2. “In the custom of burying the dead, the bodies of the dead are enclosed and concealed
in strong tombs, embellished with painting, while whatever is shrivelled and decayed, as
much as possible, is concealed with the whitest slabs, and painted with beautiful
colours, so that, in front of my eyes, they reckon that they appear beautiful. Thus in this
way the exterior [of the lustful] is entirely decorated for the eyes, and everything is
manifestly displayed on the surface, just as a stone is placed over a dead body. That
stone is polished, beautiful and painted on the outside, while the inside is filled with
foulness....”
—John Bromyard, Summa Praedicantium, cap. VII ‘Luxuria’
Et more sepelientium mortuos, diligentius corpus mortuum sepulchro claudunt forti, et
operiunt, seu ornant picto, dum quicquid rugosum, et foetidum est, quantum possibile
est, albissimis epistyliis tegunt, et pulchris coloribus pingunt, ut mihi praeter oculos,
quos pulchros reputant appareant, ut sic totum exterius ornamentum, et oculorum, et
quicquid exterius patet ostensionis, quasi lapis est super defuncti corpus positus.
Quia sicut lapis ille exterius politus, pulcher et pictus, interius plenus est foetoribus…

3. Monument to John Fitzalan (c. 1435- c. 1445), alabaster and limestone, length: 252.5cm, width: 113cm,
height: 121.5 cm, Fitzalan Chapel , Arundel, West Sussex.

5. Cloth

6. Monument to Robert Sherborne (before 1524), polychromed alabaster, 226cm x 264cm, south
ambulatory, Chichester Cathedral, West Sussex.

7. …quam imago nostra de alabastro facta de tempore in
tempus a telis aranearum pulveribus et aliis immundiciis
purgentur, et purgata semper teneantur, quodque
pannus imagini nostre appensus, quotiens opus fuerit
renovetur, extendatur et implicetur pro temporum
conditione, id est quando serenum vel festum est
discooperiatur, quando ecclesia purgatur vel tenebrose
nebule erunt, aut aerem spissari, aut crebros humores
superhabundare contigerit, cooperiatur.
“…our image made of alabaster [should] be cleansed
from time to time of cobwebs, dust and other filth, and
always kept cleansed; and that the curtain over the
image, as often as there shall be occasion for it, be
renewed, be drawn out and folded back according to the
state of the weather; that is, whenever it is a fine or feast
day, that it be laid open; whenever the Church is being
cleaned, or there are dark clouds, or the air may be
thickened or frequent damps abound, that it be covered
up.”
— Ordinances of Robert Sherborne, bishop of Chichester, 1524.

9. …pannus imagini nostre appensus — Sherborne’s ordinances
Monument to the Black Prince (1376- 1385), polychromed oak, gilt copper-alloy and Purbeck marble,
Canterbury Cathedral, Kent

10. Monument to Richard Beauchamp (1442/3-1456/7), gilded
copper alloy and Purbeck marble, Beauchamp Chapel,
Church of St Mary, Warwick.
Funeral of Richard II, illustration from Jean Froissart’s
Chroniques, Bruges, c. 1475—83
(British Library MS Royal 18 E II, fol. 416v)
…pannus imagini nostre appensus — Sherborne’s ordinances

11. By þe furst vesseƚƚ, þat was fuƚƚ of deede bonys, vs most vndirstonde þe wordle, or wordly
men,—And whi? For riȝt as þe vesseƚƚ was shynyng̘ withoute, and with Inne was but dede
bonys, so it is by þe myȝty men and riche men of þis wordle, þat hatℏ golde, and goodis
shynyngly, and havitℏ hire werkis dorke, and deede by dedly synnys… And sucℏ may be
likenyd to faire sepulcris, þe whicℏ ben maade faire withoute, And rially ornyd with
precious clothing̘ of silke and of palle, And with Inne ben nothing̘ but deede bonys.
“The first vessel, that was full of dead bones, should be understood as the world, or
worldly men. Why? For just as the vessel was shining on the outside and on the inside
was nothing but dead bones, so the mighty and rich men of this world have gold and
shining goods, but their works are dark and they are dead by mortal sins…And such
people may be compared to fair tombs, which have been made beautiful on the outside,
and royally adorned with precious clothing of silk and of pall, but within are nothing but
dead bones.”
— Middle English version of the Gesta Romanorum, , cap. LXVI ‘The Story of the Three Caskets in
the “Merchant of Venice”’.

12. Casket

13. Funerary plaque of
John, duke of Bedford
Plan of Rouen Cathedral
John, duke of Bedford (d.
1435)
Richard the Lionheart (d.
1199)
Henry the Young King
(d. 1183)
Heart tomb of Charles V
(d. 1380)
Heart tomb of Charles V

14. Rouen cathedral chapter, 25 October 1448.
uti igitur celebre monumentum
ac domini principis sepultura in ecclesia
nostra artifficiosissime ut decebat
composita in suo decore ac integritate
permaneat vigeatque in dies tanti principis
iugis memoria ac omnes Christifideles
presentes et futuri per ipsius monumenti et
corporis ymaginem admoniti animam ipsius
principis admirando et orando apud
altissimum devotissime commendent

15. Volumus et ordinamus quod in tridecim festis
solempnibus anni sequentibus [list of feast
days] dicti principis ymago ipsius sepultura
sive tumba a capsa nemorea superposita
discooperiatur et munda teneatur per
sacerdotem videlicet et clericum
clementistarum qui pro tempore dictorum
festorum vel celebritatum in missa dicti
principis ebdomadarii erunt. Quibus diebus
celebribus transactis, iterum per ipsos dicta
capsa nemorea superponatur, prout
consuetum est fieri in eadem nostra ecclesia
circa regis Karoli quinti sepulturam.
Rouen cathedral chapter, 25 October 1448.

16. Rouen cathedral chapter, 25 October 1448.
Volumus et ordinamus quod in tridecim festis
solempnibus anni sequentibus [list of feast
days] dicti principis ymago ipsius sepultura
sive tumba a capsa nemorea superposita
discooperiatur et munda teneatur per
sacerdotem videlicet et clericum
clementistarum qui pro tempore dictorum
festorum vel celebritatum in missa dicti
principis ebdomadarii erunt. Quibus diebus
celebribus transactis, iterum per ipsos dicta
capsa nemorea superponatur, prout
consuetum est fieri in eadem nostra ecclesia
circa regis Karoli quinti sepulturam.

17. …capsa nemorea superponatur — Rouen chapter records
Monument to Barnim VI von Wolgast (c. 1405), polychromed and gilded wood, length: 240cm, height:
154cm, church of St Mary, Kenz, Mecklenburg

18. Monument to Albert III, king of Sweden, and Richardis von Schwerin (c. 1400),
polychromed wood, Cistercian convent, Doberan, Mecklenburg
…capsa nemorea superponatur — Rouen chapter records

19. Monument to Barnim VI von Wolgast
Easter sepulchres (top to bottom): Weinhausen,
Germany; Kerteminde, Denmark; Baar, Switzerland

20. Entombment of St Edmund, king of the East Angles, at Bury St Edmunds, John Lydgate’s Metrical lives of
SS Edmund and Fremund, Bury St Edmunds (1434-9). (BL Harley 2278, fol. 117)

21. Sepulcrum imperatoris aperietur et tapecibus adornetur et quatuor formose
candele circumponantur et incendantur ad vigilias et ad missam
— ordinary of the church of SS Simon and Jude in Goslar, 1435
Lid of the wooden casket for the
monument to Henry III (1740)
Drawing of the monument to
Henry III (1707)
Engraving of the east end of
the church at Goslar (before
1819)

22. Funeral of Offa, John Lydgate’s Metrical lives of SS Edmund and Fremund, Bury St Edmunds (1434-39)
(BL Harley 2278, fol. 22v)

23. Concealment

24. Confession, cutting from a Book of Hours, southern Netherlands (c .1475- c. 1500).
(London, British Library MS Additional 2589, fol. 9)

25. Herman Rode, altarpiece (1478-81), polychromed oak, made in Lübeck (Germany) for Church of St Nicholas, Tallinn
(Estonia).
Predictis fratribus minoribus pro una cooperatura lignea supra ponend’ tumba regine
per manus domini Roberti de Pleselee xiii. D. Eisdem pro picture coopertura per manus
dicti domini Roberti xiii. S. IIIID.
— expenses for the obit of Isabella of France, queen of England, 1364
Et dictam tumbam cum ymaginibus fundatorurn solempniter depinxerunt ut ibidem
palam possent intueri.
— chronicle of John Strecche, canon of Kenilworth Priory, mid fifteenth century

26. Office of the Dead, Book of Hours
(c. 1485–95) Rouen (BL Harley 2959, fol. 68)

28. Monument to Alice Chaucer (c. 1470-75), polychromed alabaster and limestone, Ewelme, Oxfordshire

29. jessica.barker@courtauld.ac.uk

31. Adam Dircksz and workshop, miniature coffin, Low Countries, 1500-1530, boxwood, Height: 5.9cm,
width: 2.2cm, depth: 2.2 cm (Louvre, Paris)

32. “ein grab bestellen mitten in unsrem Dume
vor dem Capelchin und Elter, do wir unser
begrebde hain gekoren;
und sal eynen redelichen Sarcke uf das
grabe lassen hawen, und den in die Erde
versencken, und eynen deckel
daruff, den man unser ijarzyt, siebenden
und dreissigsten begeet, sal uff thun, und
vier kertzen daby setzen, als andern
Erzbischoffen unsern Forfarn seligen.”
— Testament of Conrad von Daun, 14xx