James Snyder:
The tomb figures in Late Gothic sculpture were usually presented in one of two ways: as recumbent images of the deceased as they appeared alive - representacion au vif - or as decaying corpses - representacion de la mort....[Northern Renaissance Art by James Snyder. Harry N. Abrams. 1985]
An exceptional example of such funerary statuary is found in the tomb of René de Châlon in the Church of Saint Peter in Bar-le-Duc, attributed to Ligier Richier of Lorraine. The standing image is that of death and not an actual portrait of René after his death, but the meaning is the same. The grotesque skeleton statue stands firmly and proudly, carrying his shield and gazing upward at the bony hand holding his heart. The decomposition of the body is nearly complete. But this is death activated, and in the context of a tomb it is not to be viewed as the gruesome death that reaps death as in Bruegel's painting or in the Dance of Death by Holbein. This is the dead René de Châlon, and after the flesh of his body has rotted away, his soul still holds up his heart in love - caritas - to God.