Anonymous Castile. Pleurants circa 1295

These panels decorated the funeral monument of Sancho Sáiz de Carrillo, the reclining image of which, a polychromatic cut, is conserved in the Cincinnati Art Museum of Ohio. They come from the hermit of San Andrés de Mahamud, in Burgos.

The mourners or weepers is one of the most successful elements in the tombs from the Gothic period, they are wearing typical mourning clothes.  Their presence reminds us of the funeral cortege that accompanied the corpse until it was buried.  These mourners or weepers represent the moment of mourning, the planctus.

The paintings of Mahamud, of hard and energetic strokes, are cut against a plain background.  There is a contrast between the detail and care of the artist in the heads of the figures, which show off their curly hair, compared with the treatment of the bodies without volume.  In this case, the striped and colourful clothing of the mourners take on the importance, making them striking, attractive and providing modernity to these scenes from the Gothic period.

Pleurants, Anonymous. Castile, circa 1295