A church monument is an architectural or sculptural memorial to a dead person or persons, located within a Christian church. It can take various forms, from a simple wall tablet to a large and elaborate structure which may include an effigy of the deceased person and other figures of familial or symbolic nature. It usually resides immediately above or close to the actual burial vault or grave, although very occasionally the tomb is constructed within it. Sometimes the monument is a cenotaph, commemorating a person buried at another location.
Once only the subject of antiquarian curiosity, church monuments are today recognised as works of funerary art. They are also valued by historians as giving a highly detailed record of antique costume and armour. From the middle of the 15th century, many figurative monuments also represent genuine portraiture.
For details of the stylistic development of church monuments in various regions of the World, see:
- English church monuments
- French church monuments
- German church monuments
- Italian church monuments
- Spanish church monuments
- Eastern European church monuments
Famous quotes containing the words church and/or monuments:
“Every church is a stone on the grave of a god-man: it does not want him to rise up again under any circumstances.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“If the Revolution has the right to destroy bridges and art monuments whenever necessary, it will stop still less from laying its hand on any tendency in art which, no matter how great its achievement in form, threatens to disintegrate the revolutionary environment or to arouse the internal forces of the Revolution, that is, the proletariat, the peasantry and the intelligentsia, to a hostile opposition to one another. Our standard is, clearly, political, imperative and intolerant.”
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)