‘All that glisters is not gold ...’ New discoveries about precious-metal effigial monuments in Europe (original) (raw)

This paper discusses the impact, appearance and finish of medieval gilt bronze (i.e. copper alloy) effigial monuments. Comparisons are made between the two extant cast bronze episcopal monuments in Amiens Cathedral to Evrard de Fouilloy (d. 1222) and his successor Geoffroi d'Eu (d. 1236) and the cenotaph of the Habsburg emperor Maximilian I (d. 1519) in the Hofkirche in Innsbruck with its over-life-sized ancestral and kinship statues surrounding the tomb. All were presumably intended to receive gilding, but that certainly never happened in the case of Maximilian's monument. The impact of such sumptuous 'gold' tombs resonates in the work of William Shakespeare and his contemporaries, as we see in the line 'Gilded tombs do worms enfold' (The Merchant of Venice, II, vii, 69). Conversely there are curious parallels between Maximilian's tomb and the monument that King Arthur is said to have erected to King Lot of Orkney and his allies, according to Arthurian romance.