Golafre monument at Fyfield in Berkshire



In the fifteenth and early sixteenth century people had rather a taste for the macabre when it came to funeral monuments. From the 1440s onwards it was common for the higher clergy, gentry and merchants to erect transi tombs - double level tombs in which they were portrayed in all their earthly finery above and with image of their decomposing corpse in the openwork tomb chest below. Many of these monuments were erected during the lifetime of the individual to serve as a memento mori for them during their remaining years and for those who saw it in the years after. One of the earliest monuments of this sort is that of Sir John Golafre who died in 1442 and is buried at Fyfield in Berkshire. He was portrayed in a rather advanced state of decay, with sunken eyes, taut neck and exposed ribs. The top of the monument is surmounted with an effigy of Golafre in full plate armour.

Chichele monument in Canterbury Cathedral, photo by Flambard

Barton monument at Holme-by-Newark in Nottinghamshire

A detail of the Barton monument.

Lenthall brass at Great Haseley in Oxfordshire

Hamsterley brass at Oddington in Oxfordshire

Beresford monument at Fenny Bentley in Derbyshire