Монументальные латунные надгробия в Западной Европе

Type of church memorial

A monumental brass is a type of engraved sepulchral memorial once found through Western Europe, which in the 13th century began to partially take the place of three dimensional monuments and effigies carved in stone or wood. Made of hard latten or sheet brass, let into the pavement, and thus forming no obstruction in the space required for the services of the church, they speedily came into general use, and continued to be a favourite style of sepulchral memorial for three centuries. Only two or three examples, and these of late date, are known in Scotland, among which are the memorials of Alexander Cockburn (1564) at Ormiston, east of Edinburgh; of the regent Murray (1569) in the collegiate church of St Giles, Edinburgh; and of the Minto family (1605) in the south aisle of the nave of Glasgow Cathedral. The fine memorials of the royal house of Saxony in the cathedrals of Meissen and Freiberg are the most artistic and striking brasses in Germany. Among the 13th century examples existing in German churches are the full length memorials of Yso von Welpe, Prince Bishop of Verden (1231), and of Bernard, bishop of Paderborn (1340). Many fine Flemish specimens exist in Belgium, especially at Bruges. The life sized brass of Sir John d'Aubernon II (d. 1277) at St Mary's Church, Stoke d'Abernon in Surrey has the decorations of the shield filled in with a species of enamel. Other examples of this occur, and the probability is that, in most cases, the lines of the engraving were filled with colouring matter, though brass would scarcely bear the heat requisite to fuse the ordinary enamels. Brasses become more numerous through the 14th century, and present great variety in their details. A good example is that of Nicholas Lord Burnell (d. 1382) in the church of Acton Burnell, Shropshire. In the 15th century the design and execution of monumental brasses had attained their highest excellence. The brass of Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick (d. 1401), and his wife Margaret, which formerly covered the tomb in St Mary's church, Warwick, is a striking example. One of the best specimens of plate armour is that of Sir Robert Stantoun (1458) in Castle Donington church, Leicestershire, and one of the finest existing brasses of ecclesiastics is that of Thomas de la Mare, Abbot of St Albans Abbey

It is only in the 16th century that the engraved representations become portraits. Previous to that period the features were invariably represented conventionally, though sometimes personal peculiarities were added. A large number of brasses in England are palimpsests, the back of an ancient brass having been engraved for the more recent memorial. Thus a brass commemorative of Margaret Bulstrode (1540) at Hedgerley in Buckinghamshire, on being removed from its position, was discovered to have been previously the memorial of Thomas Totyngton, abbot of St Edmundsbury (1312). The abbey was only surrendered to Henry VIII in 1539, so that before the year was out the work of spoliation had begun, and the abbot's brass had been removed and re engraved to Margaret Bulstrode. These ancient brasses were often stolen and re erected after being engraved on the reverse, as at Berkhampstead, because until the establishment of a manufactory at Esher in Surrey by a German artisan in 1649, all sheet brass had to be imported from other countries on the European mainland.

There was a revival of interest in monumental brasses in the 19th century. Among many other examples, Victorian brasses can be seen at Truro Cathedral (Archbishop Benson), Oscott College, Birmingham (Bishop John Milner), St. Nicolas', Guildford (Rev. W. S. Sanders), and All Saints, Boyne Hill, Maidenhead (Rev. Gresley and Canon Drummond). The tradition has continued into the 20th and even the 21st centuries. Recent examples have included a brass commemorating Earl Mountbatten of Burma (d. 1979) and his wife Edwina (d. 1960) in Westminster Abbey, unveiled in 1985; and a medieval style brass to Master Thomas de Aston (d. 1401) in St Edmund's Chapel, Spital in the Street, Lincolnshire, unveiled in 2001.

Numerous lists of medieval and post medieval brasses have been published. The standard national list for examples in Britain up to 1710 remains Mill Stephenson's A List of Monumental Brasses in the British Isles, first published in 1926. It is still common practice in the specialist literature for individual brasses to be identified by place name and an "M. S." number. On many points of detail, however, Stephenson's List is now seriously dated, and its cut off date of 1710 means that it omits all more modern brasses. An "Appendix" to Stephenson by M. S. Giuseppi and Ralph Griffin, containing numerous revisions, was published in 1938; and in 1964 Stephenson's List and the Appendix were reprinted by the Monumental Brass Society as a single volume. More recent lists for certain individual counties have also been published, including a volume on Warwickshire edited by S. A. Budd, published by the Monumental Brass Society in 1977, which was devised as the first instalment in a "Revised List of Monumental Brasses in the British Isles" (updating Stephenson). However, no further volumes in this series came to fruition. In 1992 the Monumental Brass Society began to publish a new fully illustrated "County Series" for England, edited by William Lack, Martin Stuchfield and Philip Whittemore, to cover brasses of all periods, and intended to supersede Stephenson. This has progressed county by county on an alphabetical basis, beginning with Bedfordshire in 1992, and reaching Huntingdonshire by 2012. (Cumberland and Westmorland were published as a single volume in 1998; while Essex was published in two volumes in 2003.) For those counties that have been published, the County Series volumes are now regarded as the definitive catalogue. Where appropriate, entries retain Stephenson's "M. S." numbers. Hugh Cameron published a list of monumental brasses in continental Europe in 1970.