Funeral Monuments in Post-Reformation England

Description

This book takes as its subject the most important kind of surviving post-Reformation church art and the most important genre of English Renaissance sculpture, the carved stone funeral monument. These complex constructions, comprising not just sculpted figures but also architectural framing, heraldic decoration and inscribed text, were set up in huge numbers during the years around 1600 and still survive in their thousands in parish churches across England. This is the first comprehensive account of the subject for over fifty years. Llewellyn examines the place of the tomb in the historiography of English art, issues of patronage and the business of erecting a monument, the tomb-makers, their world and the materials, and Reformist iconoclasm in England and its impact on the tombs. The volume is lavishly illustrated with rare photographs of tombs and monuments and offers a valuable and informative record of one of England's greatest treasures.

'This is essential reading for art historians, social historians and even students of the politics and economics of the period.' The Art Newspaper 'Dr Llewellyn is to be commended for establishing a new area of inquiry: the visual culture of churches and the practice of commemoration in early modern England.' Journal of Ecclesiastical History 'This is undoubtedly an important work which will remain the standard text for the foreseeable future.' Renaissance Studies 'Llewelyn's study has much to inform the serious 'Reformation' theologian.' Laudetur 'Llewellyn's study explores the complexities and range of these ambitious works and persuasively argues for their importance as registers of shifting social attitudes and aspirations. this important book deserves the attention not merely of art historians, but of a far wider variety of scholars working on the material culture of post-medieval England.' Post-Medieval Archaeology