Between tradition and innovation: the sepulchral monument of Adam Easton at S. Cecilia in Trastevere

This essay discusses the original setting, appearance and authorship of the sepulchral monument of Cardinal Adam Easton, which survives in considerably reduced form in the church of S. Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome. The finding of unpublished archival documents, combined with a re-examination of known sources, including a much debated drawing of the tomb in an already partially altered form, leads to the identification of the original location of the monument, and to new hypotheses about its appearance and significance within the sacred topography of the church. Renewed visual and technical analysis sheds new light on the commission and its artists. Parallels are also drawn with the tomb of Cardinal Philippe d’Alençon in S. Maria in Trastevere in order to think about ‘portraiture’ in late-Trecento Rome. The reconstructed original tomb, alongside the extant effigy, bier and laudatory epitaph are then used to offer further insights into the life of Easton, his supporters, and on his desire for perpetual remembrance.