To see: on the south side of the Herbert Chapel, an alabaster effigy set into a richly carved arch, as if laid in a niche cut to fit him exactly. This is Sir Richard Herbert of Ewyas, natural son of Sir William Herbert, first Earl of Pembroke. Don't miss the detail: his feet rest on a lion whose head, for want of room, pokes cheekily round the corner of the niche beneath a carved canopy. Raised at Raglan alongside the young Henry Tudor, Richard served Henry VII after Bosworth. His armoured effigy shows early-Renaissance alabaster work: crisp modelling of the face, praying hands, late-Gothic canopy ornament shading into a newer vocabulary. It is one of the three great alabaster pieces for which the chapel is famous.
Did you know?
The lion at the effigy's feet was meant to fit wholly within the arch — but the carver, short of space, let its head spill round the corner: a compositional "accident" that has become one of the monument's best-loved quirks.
Info
- Person: Sir Richard Herbert of Ewyas (d. c. 1510), natural son of the 1st Earl of Pembroke.
- Material: alabaster within a stone canopy-arch, south side of the Herbert Chapel.
- Motif: armoured effigy, lion beneath the feet overflowing the niche.
- Interior; one of Abergavenny's three great alabaster pieces.