This book takes as its subject the most important kind of surviving post-Reformation church art and the most important genre of English Renaissance sculpture, the carved stone funeral monument. These complex constructions, comprising not just sculpted figures but also architectural framing, heraldic decoration and inscribed text, were set up in huge numbers during the years around 1600 and still survive in their thousands in parish churches across England. This is a comprehensive account of the subject, Llewellyn examines the place of the tomb in the historiography of English art, issues of patronage and the business of erecting a monument, the tomb-makers, their world and the materials, and Reformist iconoclasm in England and its impact on the tombs. The volume is lavishly illustrated with rare photographs of tombs and monuments and offers a valuable and informative record of one of England's greatest treasures.
