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Introduction
Once there was an image of a king in the now lost Danse macabre mural at the cemetery of the Holy Innocents in Paris, and it was modelled after the tomb effigy of Charles VI.1 Thus, this cryptoportrait referred to the identity of a particular king, not only by the costume and regalia of French rulers, but also by similarity in appearance to the late monarch's gisant. This example illuminates more than just the visual importance of tomb sculpture. It emphasizes the bond between sepulchral art of the later Middle Ages and the personal identities of those for whom it was commissioned. Sculpted effigies were truly markers of remembrance. By the thirteenth century it became customary for those of high rank to commission life-size figures for their tombs, and during the fourteenth century individualized features were slowly being introduced to the images of the represented.2
But to remember a deceased in this period virtually meant to remember praying for his soul so that he could be saved from purgatorial pains much earlier than he would actually have been without the aid of the living. There were many means of ensuring salvation in late medieval Europe. While some were more orthodox than others,3 for those powerful and wealthy enough tomb sculpture was supposed to fulfil that goal. Cherishing the memory of the persons buried beneath, effigies were often designed to meet the task of redeeming the deceased they represented.4 Therefore, it was essential for the image above the entombed corpse to be able to herald the identity of the departed individual. The argument delivered in the following pages will, hopefully, bolstered this contention by showing how identity could be displayed in the late Middle Ages even through the means by which this was achieved paradoxically seem to dissolve the very idea of identity.
Instead of a recumbent figure in a peaceful and deep sleep, or as a resurrected body looking toward the gates of Heaven, transi or cadaver tombs bore the representation of a deceased as an unsightly naked corpse, already affected by the grip of decay. Many variations of this type of funeral monument survive through Europe to this day, ranging from the so called 'double-decker' transi tombs to the verminous cadaver effigies.5 A...