Tomb and the Tiara

A history of tomb sculpture which spans the shift of the papacy and college of cardinals from Rome to Avignon. Rather than concentrating on the work of individual sculptors, Professor Gardner discusses the surviving or documented tombs of popes, cardinals and important clerics in Rome and Central Italy from the viewpoint of style, context, funerary custom and testamentary wishes. The transference of the papacy to Avignon brought with it radical changes in the personnel, burial traditions and artistic environment of the papal curia, and Paris, Westminster and Toulouse became points of reference. The effect on Roman sculpture of the absence of the Papacy is considered, together with the problem of sepulchural portraiture. The European resonances of tomb sculpture both in Rome and Avignon are examined.Table of ContentThe anatomy of mortality; wills and contracts; beginnings; tomb styles in Roman Sculpture circa 1200-circa 1300; workshops and sculptors in Rome; the papal monument in the later Midle Ages; the sepulchral monument in Rome circa 1250-circa 1305 - some cardinals' tombs of the 13th century in France; the tomb designs of Arnolfo di Cambio; facta est quasi vidua - tomb sculpture in Rome 1300-1400; ubi papa ibi Roma - the curia abroad - some lost tombs of the Aviognonese period, surviving cardinals' tombs outside France and Italy. sculpture in the 14th century; the curia abroad; tombs and portraiture.