ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on data interpretation, where the key issues raised in the analysis. It is interested in monuments of stone figurative reliefs or sculpture. The data suggests that the custom of commemorating children began earlier in the Kingdom of Poland and spread westwards, at a critical time of social, cultural and religious changes. This new type of monumental body later spread to North and Western Poland as part of the cultural diffusion of this region at that time. The gender bias in the Catalogue data is related to the use of the reclining putto motif, which is particularly suitable for young children especially infants too young to stand or walk, suggests an appreciation of the physical body of the young child. Thus the changes that took place at the end of the sixteenth century in those areas in Europe influenced by Counter-Reformation were intended to curb the intellectual and artistic freedoms of Renaissance, as well as to repudiate Protestantism.