Popular in western Europe during the Renaissance, the art form depicts a deceased person during the transition between life and death — the corporeal husk of a departed soul.
From the late 14th century onward, some tombs were also adorned with recumbent transi sculptures. In contrast to the usual serene depictions of eternally sleeping saints, these “cadaver tombs’ showed the effects of death in stark detail.
The effigy of French doctor Guillaume de Harsigny is emaciated and noseless, while Belgian sculptor Jacques du Broeucq‘s 16th-century “l’homme à moutons” (“man eaten by worms”) shows a decaying body riddled with the wriggling creatures.
Clearly, evidence of medieval necromancy. Or the well-documented but poorly-reported on zombie outbreak of the Middle Ages.
Via Slate.
Rather gruesome, weren’t they?
I was just wondering if one could put in a request to have that done to one on one’s tombstone…:-)
Beautiful and yucky at the same time. I second the second comment.