The Cadaver Tomb of René of Chalon is a late Gothic period funerary monument, known as a transi, in the church of Saint-Étienne at Bar-le-Duc, in northeastern France. It consists of an altarpiece and a limestone statue of a putrefied and skinless corpse which stands upright and extends his left hand outwards. Completed sometime between 1544 and 1557, the majority of its construction is attributed to the French sculptor Ligier Richier.
About Cadaver Tomb of René of Chalon in brief
The Cadaver Tomb of René of Chalon is a late Gothic period funerary monument, known as a transi, in the church of Saint-Étienne at Bar-le-Duc, in northeastern France. It consists of an altarpiece and a limestone statue of a putrefied and skinless corpse which stands upright and extends his left hand outwards. Completed sometime between 1544 and 1557, the majority of its construction is attributed to the French sculptor Ligier Richier. Other elements, including the coat of arms and funeral drapery, were added in the 16th and 18th centuries respectively. The tomb dates from a period of societal anxiety over death, as plague, war and religious conflicts ravaged Europe. René was killed aged 25 at the siege of St. Dizier on 15 July 1544, from a wound sustained in battle the previous day. This apparently fulfilled his deathbed wish that his tomb depict his body as it would be three years after his death. The statue is 177 cm in height, and made from black marble and limestone. The rotting skeleton is depicted in an unflinching realistic manner, and placed on a stylobate supported on two black marble columns with Corinthian capitals. The figure has been described as a “rotting corpse with shredded muscles falling from the bones and skin hanging in flaps over a hollow carcass”.
His left hand reaches upwards as if pleading to heaven or God. The gesture may represent contrite pleading or supplication, or the ability of the spirit to overcome mortality. The outstretched arm may have once have held René’s preserved heart, and extended in a gesture that may have been either pleading or tribute to a higher being. It was moved for safekeeping to the Panthéon in Paris during the First World War, before being returned to Bar-Le-Duce in 1920. The monument may be an illustration of the “doctrine of corruption as a necessary step toward regeneration”. René had been mortally wounded in battle for Emperor Charles V, and died with the Emperor in attendance at his bedside without leaving any direct descendants. However, that placement changed the meaning of the sculpture, from a representation of death or a depiction of the danse macabre to a personification of a macabre macabre personification of death or personification. It is believed that René would have wanted this tomb to be represented as an écorché, that is, a body that is a skin and a skinless body without a skin. The inscription on the tomb reads: ‘Though after my skin, worms destroy my body, yet in my flesh shall I see God’
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This page is based on the article Cadaver Tomb of René of Chalon published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 31, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
