Sir Thomas Cawne

[poliphilo]

This is Sir Thomas Cawne, first owner of Ightham Mote.

Medieval tomb effigies don't come much finer than this. It's been suggested it may be from the same workshop as the effigy of The Black Prince in Canterbury Cathedral.

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The Romans cared about getting a good likeness. I'm not sure the medievals did. Their idea of a handsome knight or beautiful lady seems to have been fairly standardized- and it's only towards the middle of the 15th century that we start to get strongly individualised portraits.

On the other hand I was watching a documentary about King John the other night and one of the scholars interviewed was saying that the effigy on John's tomb is likely to be an fairly accurate portrait- so who knows?

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

Even today, we use Photoshop to make our celebrities look better.