# Tomb plaque of Geoffrey of Anjou [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [UNKNOWN GOLDSMITH, French]() - Date: 1151-1200 - Technique: Copper, champlevé, enamel, 63 x 33 cm ## Commentary Tomb plaque of Geoffrey of Anjou c. 1158 Copper, champlevé, enamel, 63 x 33 cm Musée de Tessé, Le Mans Geoffrey of Anjou \(1113-1151\) was Count of Maine and Anjou and father of the future King Henry II of England, and thus the forefather of the Plantagenet dynasty of English kings. His image on an unusually large enamelled plaque, which functioned as a funerary effigy, shows him not as an individual, but in an emblematic and generalized way, as a representative of his class. Geoffrey has a sword in his right hand and holds a tall shield with his left. The shield is emblazoned with one of the earliest representation of a coat-of-arms, consisting of four gilded lions standing on their hind legs against a blue background. ## Related artworks - [Allegory of Faith in Baptism]() - [Angel Reliquary \(detail\)]() - [Angel Reliquary]() - [Aquamanile]() - [Binding of a Book of Hours]() - [Bust Reliquary]() - [Butterfly Reliquary]() - [Casket with Scenes of Courtly Love]() - [Casket with Scenes of Courtly Love]() - [Corpus]() - [Enseigne with battle composition]() - [Fibula of Picquigny]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()