The iconography of the sculpture "transi" and its influence on the images of "Death Dances"

The object of the study is late medieval sculpture and painting. The subjects of the study are sculptural monuments "transi", figures of the "Prince of this world" and "Frau Welt", engraved tombstone image "brass", compositions of the legend "Three living and three dead" and cycles of "Dances of Death". The purpose of the study is to trace the influence of "transi" sculptures on the images of cadavers in the cycles of "Dances of Death". The radically changed image of tombstones, which evolved from decent images of a model with prayerfully folded hands in the 12th–13th centuries to impulsively curved dead bodies, in a relatively short period of time turns into its planar equivalent, which is part of a string of dead doubles of numerous "Dances of Death". Using the logical and typological methods, the relationship between the "transi" sculptures and the images of the "Dances of Death" is traced. The article touches upon the issue related to the heretical teaching of the Cathars and their concept of the damnation of the flesh, as well as the concept of Purgatory formed in the 13th century. The idea of the ability to experience physical pain in Purgatory is reflected in the sculptures of "transi" and as an echo in the figures of the cadavers of the "Dance of Death". Particular attention is paid to the perception of the ambivalence of the image from sharply repulsive to attractive and the location of monuments closely associated with church architecture as a place of protection. The novelty of the study is a detailed analysis of such factors as the transformation of tombstones of the late Middle Ages, their intersection with religious and philosophical aspects and artistic images that directly influenced the iconography of the "Dance of Death".

transi, Dance of Death, purgatory, Frau Welt, brass by Wulter Koopman, tombstone of Antonio Amati, The Cathars, Rene de Chalon, the tempter, gisant