I suspect the whole phenomenon could be divided into separate, but to some extent overlapping, categories; indeed I'm not sure that 'cenotaphs' is a very useful word for many of these, though it's a reasonable shorthand for an e-discussion!
And, for example, our retrospective tombs at Wells, though they are I believe likely originally to have been displayed behind the high altar rather like a reredos, really are tombs -- they contained the bones believed to be those of the bishops. Whereas I do wonder about those of Athelstan and Osric. Osric's tomb at least was/is on top of that king's traditional burial place, yet there is something rather self-conscious about the creation of such a visible tomb so very long after his burial. I don't know what was there before the current tomb.
The reliquaries analogy is a significant one for the whole subject: in thinking about the varieties of these monuments, it's worth bearing in mind, as Jim pointed out, the significance of tombs, relics of tombs, and in particular empty tombs, to medieval Christian culture.
Jon
Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2014 10:16:26 +0000
From:
[log in to unmask]Subject: Re: [M-R] cenotaphs
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[log in to unmask]medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I think the retrospective monument and the soon-after-death cenotaph are probably 2 different phenomena (though both equally fascinating!)
I wonder whether we can get any idea of intention - are there ever inscriptions which make it clear that the body is elsewhere? (you do of course get this on post-medieval monuments.) I don't think that retrospective monuments ever had any intention to
deceive - but there's a slippery area between retrospective monuments and reliquaries which again confuses the picture.
Maddy
Dr Madeleine Gray PhD, FRHistS
Reader in Church History/ Darllenydd mewn Hanes yr Eglwys
School of Humanities and Social Sciences /Ysgol Ddyniaethau a Gwyddoniaethau Cymdeithasol
University of South Wales/Prifysgol De Cymru
Caerleon Campus/Campws Caerllion,
Newport/Casnewydd NP18 3QT Tel: +44 (0)1633.432675
http://www.southwales.ac.uk
http://twitter.com/penrhyspilgrim
http://twitter.com/HeritageUSW
http://twitter.com/USWHistory
'We all cherrypick the past but you have to be aware that you're cherrypicking' (Ruth Goodman)
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I concur with what Maddy says strongly. And I'd also counsel -- this may be obvious -- against making assumptions in any given case. Given their size, it is astonishing how many medieval tombs have demonstrably been moved around the church, or
major parts of them -- entire effigies -- lost. This confuses the evidence for the true picture, ie the original relationship of effigy and burial -- all the more.
A couple more examples:
The retrospective bishops of Wells are a celebrated example of a much more widespread phenomenon: there were programmes of 'heritage' monuments to past bishops at Hereford and York, too.
The Bristol merchant William Canynges has two effigies in St Mary Redcliffe church, Bristol. One is a full-scale affair with a canopy in which he and his wife are depicted as a wealthy burgess-class couple; the other shows Canynges alone in alabaster, in his
role as Dean of Westbury. They can't both be tombs!
At Gloucester (Prince Osric) and Malmesbury (Athelstan) abbeys there are sixteenth-century monuments to Anglo-Saxon royal founders and benefactors.
Jon
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