Tomb Effigy of a Recumbent Knight

ca. between 1350 and 1375

On View

European: Medieval and Renaissance, Level 2, West Wing

Tomb Effigy of a Recumbent Knight: 1 of Collection Gallery

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Published References

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Catalogue Raisonné

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About the Artwork

Carved in Naples, this funerary sculpture depicts a knight in his fashionable equipment. He wears a mail shirt and leggings under hardened leather arm and leg defenses embossed with elegant blossoms and scrolling ivy tendrils. The decoration on the sculpture would have been brightly painted and even gilded — much like the real-life model. Although few examples survive, such colorful and resilient leather armor was popular among the martial classes in the 1300s, and remained in use even as steel plates became the dominant form of protection in the 1400s.
The knight’s brigandine, a garment protecting the torso that consists of overlapping iron or steel plates riveted between layers of textile or leather, bears the coat of arms of the princely German Anhalt family. His South Italian tomb effigy suggests he died far from home. As if asleep, the knight lies with his head on a cushion covered in patterned fabric from Italy or the Near East, attesting to the movement of people, goods, and ideas across Europe and the Mediterranean in the medieval era.

Title Tomb Effigy of a Recumbent Knight

Artwork Date ca. between 1350 and 1375

Artist ----------

Life Dates ----------

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. Italian

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. Italian

Medium Marble

Dimensions Overall: 76 × 22 3/8 × 10 inches (193 × 56.8 × 25.4 cm) Overall (pedestal): 15 3/4 × 30 × 87 inches (40 × 76.2 × 221 cm)

Classification Sculpture

Department European Sculpture and Dec Arts

Credit City of Detroit Purchase

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 27.1

Markings

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Provenance

(Alfredo Pallesi, Bologna, Italy);
1927-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

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Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

The Art of Chivalry. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1984, cat. no. 13, p. 14 (ill.).

Darr, A.P., P. Barnet, A. Boström, C. Avery, et al. Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Detroit Institute of Arts, 2 vols. London, 2002, 2 vols., I, cat. 45.

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