What Is It: Gisant

One of the perks of being royal, noble or just plain wealthy was the ability to have an elaborate tomb carved in one's honor.  The grandest of these had recumbent effigies representing the person, usually dressed in their best and laid out as though recently dead, much like a bier.  These splendid carved effigies were known as gisants (JEEZ-ahnts) from an old French term meaning recumbent or reclining.  There were several reasons for them, conspicuous consumption and wealth being only one of them.

From our vantage point, life in the Middle Ages seemed to be death obsessed.  Art depicting death in its various forms, from recently-deceased corpses, to cadavers, skeletons, souls in heaven or hell or being resurrected was present in many media, from carvings to stained glass, manuscripts and tapestries.  This preoccupation with death and the afterlife had a very basic reason.  Death was everywhere.  Wars, plagues, diseases or childbirth were just some of the many ways a person could die.  In the centuries before modern medicine, death could come suddenly and without warning, striking down old and young, frail or seemingly healthy.  And, life in the afterworld wasn't always a pleasant prospect.  While most people aspired to life in heaven, they were only too aware that a penitential limbo known as purgatory awaited most souls.  That is, those that weren't too wicked or unrepentant enough to be arbitrarily cast to hell.  A person could live as religious a life as possible but only God had the say of who ended up where.  There was one piece of insurance, and that was for the living to see to it that when they died, their survivors would pray for their souls or have masses said, or do other charitable works such as donating to churches or religious foundations in an effort to speed the soul out of purgatory as soon as possible.  The most obvious way to ensure this was to leave a visible reminder in the form of a tomb. 

Tombs with statuary or effigies had been known since ancient times, but it became an art form again in Europe about the 12th century, as the Plantagenet family began their spectacular rise.  While some tomb effigies were generic, not meant as exact portraiture of the person, others were more specific.  Kings and Queens were shown with crowns, often robed as for their coronations.  Knights were displayed in armor.  Clergy were carved in their vestments.  Some gisants, such as those of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II, Richard I and others at Fontevrault were quite colorful, though the colors have faded over time.  While some tombs were carved with the deceased holding items such as books, swords or staves of office, the most common form was of the deceased with hands folded, either on the brink of death or possible resurrection.  Most of these tombs were cenotaphs.  That is, the deceased wasn't buried under the effigy.  Either they or a portion of their corpse, normally innards or heart, would be buried in the church crypts. 

The effigy was a symbol of many things.  An elaborate effigy such as that of Eleanor of Castile was a testament to her husband Edward I's deep love and terrible grief at her death.  Usually, a church, cathedral or abbey picked to house a tomb would also receive a generous donation from the deceased's family.  The tomb thus functioned as acknowledgment of that donation.  In return, the chapter of clergy associated with the church would promise to provide masses or prayers in perpetuity for the deceased's soul.  Some families paid for chantries, small chapels for these prayers and masses to take place.  The tomb would be placed in or near the designated chantry.  Other tombs contained carved epitaphs, some specifically asking the passerby to pray for the deceased's soul, or reminding that death was nearby for all. 

Over time, these tombs became more elaborate, often with roofed cupolas over the recumbent body.  Some tombs took the form of transi or cadaver tombs, with the deceased depicted as a half-rotten corpse complete with worms, tattered shrouding and exposed bones.  Other tombs were double-decker, with the cadaver below and the recumbent image above.  The message was clear that for even the very royal or seriously wealthy, death and decay awaited them all and the only hope remaining was to pray their souls to heaven as quickly as possible.