El transi tomb iconografía del yacente en proceso de descomposición

Resumen

The transi tomb, in the art of the Late Middle Ages, is the representation of a dead and putrefying human body. It was a relatively common iconographic theme in 15th century-funerary sculpture, related to the visual expressions of the macabre, being the most relevant examples those found in tombstones, graves and miniatures. The transi replaced the traditional idealized recumbent or doubled the recumbent image, showing at the same time, the deceased idealized and the realistic view of its body in the process of degradation. Reaffirming an idea, present in the Christian Neoplatonic philosophy, which argues that the body is a corrupt and contemptible support for the soul, which is immortal, beautiful and it’s endowed with grace. Although the transi predominates as macabre visual resource in funeral contexts, it is not an exclusive theme to the ornamentation of the tombs, but also appears in miniatures and other supports, always understood as a warning against the transience of life. There are two main iconographic variants: simple transi, showing a single individual as a corpse, and double transi, that confront the image of the deceased, represented as if asleep, with his dead and degraded double, as a specular vision. These two iconographies were enriched with local variations and various attributes that should be studied in relation to the stages of the natural process of putrefaction and the symbolic value granted to certain vermin.