Tomb Relief with a Bishop Giving a Funeral Blessing

This tomb relief served as the front of an altar in the village church of Torà de Riubregós, near Cervera in Catalonia (eastern Spain). At the center of the relief, a bishop blesses the deceased with words from the Mass for the Dead, "requiescat in pace amen" ("rest in peace, amen"), inscribed on the book held by the assistant at his feet. The bishop is surrounded by praying women, chanting monks, and grieving knights. The knights probably owed their allegiance to the deceased nobleman.
The use of paint, high relief, and crowded, animated figures with large heads is typical of late medieval Spanish sculpture. The sculptor may be Bernat Pintor, who worked in Cervera in 1378. Although none of Pintor's sculpture is known today, he apparently trained with Berenguer Ferrer (active 1340s-1350s) whose known work is similar.

Inscription

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.

Raoul Heilbronner, Paris, by purchase; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1909, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.