Recumbent effigy

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Name = Recumbent Effigy Sculpture in East Hampton, New York

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Img_capt = The tomb of Lion Gardiner in East Hampton (village), New York depicts him in the classic recumbent effigy pose. He is shown wearing knight's armor and clutching a sword. This photo is from April 2006.
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Recumbent effigy literally means a "likeness lying in repose"; life-size sculptures in this position decorated Western European tombs and church monuments of important people from the Middle Ages onwards, wearing the costume of their station and lying on their back. The effigy was placed on top of the sarcophagus. Some later variations showed the deceased lying on their side as if reading. Another late medieval fashion was to show the person at death or even another figure below in an advanced state of decomposition. Gisant sculptures often had associated sculptures depicting mourners. Some of the greatest examples of the recumbent effigy in Westminster Abbey in London, Saint Peter's in Rome, Saint Paul's Cathedral, London, Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice (twenty-five Doges), and the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence.

ee also

*The Tomb of Antipope John XXIII in Florence is a very grand Early Renaissance wall tomb by Donatello and Michelozzo.