Tomb of Ilaria de Carretto

Ilaria del Caretto (1379—1405), who died at a young age from puerperal fever, had been the wife of Paolo Guinigi, lord of Lucca. Having been commissioned to make her tomb, Jacopo della Quercia worked on the monument from 1406 to 1408. Despite having been partially dismantled after 1430 and then moved on several subsequent occasions, the tomb remains one of the outstanding works of fifteenth-century Italian funerary sculpture. The cherubs holding garlands on the tomb represent one of the earliest appearances in Renaissance art of a motif known from the sarcophagi of classical antiquity. The vestments of the deceased evoke northern Gothic sculpture of the period and courtly fashion, which is not surprising as Guinigi was engaged in trade with the Duchy of Burgundy and France. The life-like figure of a dog at the feet of the deceased symbolises marital loyalty.