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Video: How eerie transi tombstones appeared in Europe, and why they depicted decaying corpses
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Since prehistoric times, mankind has always respected the deceased by their relatives and all that. People sought to perpetuate the memory of the dead in various structures - from stone boulders, bulk mounds, ancient Egyptian pyramids to exquisite sculptural compositions, ancestral crypts, tombs and mausoleums. However, there was a period in history tombstoneswhen these sculptural structures had a truly terrifying appearance.
The story of one tombstone
René de Chalon - Prince of Orange, ruler of Holland and Zealand, bequeathed that after his death a tombstone should be installed on his grave, depicting him as he will become three years after burial. And he died at the age of 25 during the 9th Italian War in 1544 on the battlefield.
Before the body of the murdered prince was transported to his homeland, all the organs were first removed from it and buried in the town of Bar-le-Duc, in the Church of Saint-Maxe. And according to the will of his wife, exactly three years later, she erected a monument over the remains of her husband.
This tombstone was expertly carved out of marble by the sculptor Ligier Richier. He portrayed the deceased holding his heart in his hand, which originally lay in a small red casket. This was until 1790, when the heart was not stolen. Then this detail of the sculptural composition was replaced with an hourglass, and later with a plaster heart.
The meaning of the gesture: the right hand on the chest and the raised left hand with the heart is not known. Apparently the author wanted to show the desire of the deceased to pass it on either to God or to his wife. The meaning of this allegory has not yet been fully understood. And if we judge about the ideal sculpture of a disfigured body, then we can say with confidence that Ligier Richier had considerable knowledge of anatomy.
The fashion for such terrible monuments, called "transi de vie" (transition from life), was due to the historical events of the 14th century, when massive wars, epidemics and famine killed about half of the population of Europe. Death at that time massively "mowed down" the population, so the appearance of the decaying corpses did not particularly bother anyone. Before her, everyone was equal - rulers and archbishops, generals and knights, aristocrats and simple farmers.
In those terrible times, the tombstones of the Transi (Le Transi) appeared, which means "the deceased". They became widespread in the Middle Ages in France and Germany, and then spread to almost all European countries.
In essence, it is a tombstone sculpture depicting with maximum realism the human body in the process of decomposition.
As a rule, the tombs of noble persons - kings and queens, knights, archbishops, wealthy nobles - were decorated with two-tiered sculptures. They were a vivid allegory of the transition of earthly glory into the frailty of the body.
In the 16th century, another type of transit appeared in France, depicting naked corpses only a few hours after death.
The meaning of the transit is still not clear. Some believe that this is a clear example of what happens to the body of the deceased after death, others - that these creepy figures were supposed to perform the function of "memento mori", that is, remind the living of the inevitability of death. And the fact that everyone should die and decay in the earth was emphasized by all sorts of terrible details - from worms to toads and snakes
The Renaissance era gave the world the genius Florentine sculptor Michelangelo Buonarroti, who carved many sculptural tombstones from marble. But the most masterpiece work on a religious theme was Rieta, Lamentation of Christ.
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