effigy

There remain in England 10 effigies cast in bronze over a period of two centuries (1290–1518), among them some of the finest examples of figure work and metal casting to be found in Europe. In several instances, particulars for the contracts of the tombs survive, together with the names of…

…the emphasis given to the effigy. Around 1260 the first attempts were made to endow the effigy with a particular character. This may not have involved portraiture (it is obviously hard to be sure), but it did involve a study of different types of physiognomy, just as the botanical carving…

…the ground and large-scale earth effigies. Bark effigies and paintings on bark are recorded but have not survived. In the northwest, a unique form of monument was created: the dendroglyph, an engraving on a living tree trunk. Carved in the usual geometric style, dendroglyphs featured clan designs or made references…

…by costumed men and by effigies. The costumes were, if not naturalistic, highly allusive accumulations of objects that recalled the dema and their creations. The wearer’s basic disguise was a fibre costume. He carried on his back or head at least one large effigy carved in softwood; the effigy was…

…commemorative funerary ceremonies, enormous bark-cloth effigies, painted with tattoo designs, were set up in front of the image platforms. Only a few miniature bark-cloth figures of this type have survived.