91. The Genre of Funerary Sculpture: Continuity and Modernity in the 18th and 19th Centuries

While the turning point associated with the “Sattelzeit” is central in the historiography of funerary sculpture in Europe, this panel seeks to explore continuities between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Fundamental studies have focused either on eighteenth-century funerary monuments within buildings such as churches or chapels (Craske, 2008; Baker, 1995; Penny, 1977) or nineteenth-century sculpture in urban cemeteries (Mauro, Sborgi, 2012; Le Normand-Romain, 1995; Berresford, 2004). To go beyond that, our particular attention will be paid to the displacement of the funerary monument from the church to the cemetery, as well as to the development of large urban cemeteries, viewed as structuring mechanisms that transformed monumental forms, social practices and modes of reception.

The new placement of monuments outside churches enabled, on the one hand, the emergence of a freer iconography, while on the other, long-standing sacred motifs persisted. By highlighting these continuities, it becomes possible to consider them as driving forces behind the transformations that led to the emergence of the modern monument. Although removed from their traditional religious context, funerary monuments did not abandon the sacred; rather, they contributed to its reconfiguration within new spatial and social frameworks. The session therefore places the question of genre at its core, both in terms of iconographic categories — between sacred and secular — and in terms of art historical classification. 

These developments must also be understood in relation to the conditions of production. The session will therefore examine the processes of industrialisation and mass production, as well as the emergence of a genuine “sepulchral market.” In doing so, it aims to question the place of funerary sculpture within the “genres” of art history and to reassess its long-standing historiographical marginalisation, linked to its association with serial production, industrial techniques, and its displacement beyond traditional ecclesiastical contexts.

Themes: funerary sculpture; artistic genre; historiography

Lead Convenor: Eric Sergent, Université de Haute-Alsace, Cresat, France

Co-convenors: Wiebke Windorf, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Archäologien und Klassische Altertumswissenschaften, Germany

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