chests (known as tomb chests, altar tombs or table tombs) decorated with foliage, heraldry or architectural detailing. Soon such chests stood alone with varying degrees of decorations. By the end of the century, these often had architectural canopies. Small figures of weepers (often friends or relatives identified by their coats of arms) were popular decorative features. In the 15th century, the figures were often portrayed as angels or saints, and the chest might include a cadaver. The most refined monuments were made of alabaster. Around the 13th century, smaller two-dimensional effigies incised in plates of brass and affixed to monumental slabs of stone became popular too. These memorial brasses were somewhat cheaper and particularly popular with the emerging middle class. Early modern period The removal of almost all the many wall-paintings in English churches in the iconoclasm of the English Reformation and the English Commonwealth left plenty of bare spaces. Over the following centuries, these were gradually filled by monuments of the wealthy. It is the lack of competition from religious paintings and a tolerance of figurative sculpture in memorials, which most Protestant countries did not share, that produced the exceptionally rich English holdings of large sculptural church monuments. In the 16th century, church monuments became increasingly influenced by Renaissance forms and detailing (pilasters, wreaths, strapwork, skulls, coffered arches, obelisks, allegorical figures, etc.), particularly in France, the Netherlands and, eventually, England. There were major innovations in effigial posture, the deceased often being shown reclining or kneeling in prayer and surrounded by the whole family, as in life. Cadavers were replaced by skeletons. The 'hanging' mural or wall monument also became popular, sometimes with half-length 'demi-figures'; and also the floor-bound heraldic ledger stone. The 17th century saw an increase in classicism and the use of marble. Effigies might be sitting or standing, grief-stricken, shrouded or, unusually, rising from the grave. Busts and relief portraits were popular. High Baroque monuments were some of the grandest ever constructed. Decoration turned to cherubs, urns, drapery, garlands of fruit and flowers. In the 18th century, church monuments became more restrained, placed before two-dimensional pyramids, but more Roman-like, with the deceased often depicted in Roman dress or as a cameo-like 'medallion portrait'. The Rococo style gave more movement to these figures. Victorian period The early 19th century brought Greek Revival monuments, some quite plain wall plaques, some with sentimental and romantically realistic figures (perhaps rising to