Cadaver Tombs

I’ve always been spooked by cadaver tombs such as the one shown above, yet oddly drawn to them too. That’s the lover of the weird and unsettling in me, I suppose  But just look at it. Such artistry and detail. Such a macabre representation.

Cadaver tombs, also referred to so as memento mori or transi tombs, are found in some churches and cathedrals here in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. They were popular in the late medieval period. Some of the most gruesome examples of these tombs have a two-tier structure – the uppermost featuring a serene, recumbent figure and the lower level displaying an emaciated body near to death or a rotting corpse. The detail is striking and disturbing to our modern eyes, but what makes these sculptures even more disturbing is that many were installed during the lifetimes of the people whose tombs or funerary monuments they would eventually become.

A memento mori is something that acts as a reminder of the inevitability of death, and these tombs would certainly have achieved their purpose. Those who commissioned them would have seen these sculptures of themselves every time they attended church. But why would they want to put themselves through this? There are a number of possible reasons. One is that these tombs reminded people that death is the great leveller – it comes to all regardless of status and wealth. They also kept everybody mindful of the need to prepare their souls for the continuing journey and to pray for those who had departed.

I’m sure someone has weaved a tale around such a grisly memorial. I’ll keep an eye out. If I can’t find one, perhaps I’ll write one.

Sources.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadaver_tomb

http://medieval-church-art.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/taste-for-macabre-late-medieval-cadaver.html

The presence and significance of skeletal and cadaveric imagery in visual sources from later medieval funerary – from www.academia.edu.