Because they are just so incredibly complex to look at; it takes time to really take one in fully and see all the different elements and how they come together to create a united whole.
And the three-dimensional sculptures are only a part of that. Along with the heraldry, of course!
A good example of this in York Minster is the memorial of Sir William Ingram of Catell and Thorpe (ca. 1565-1623).
The kneeling figures here are those of Sir William Ingram, Sr. and his wife, Katherine Edmonds. We can tell this because, although A Guide to the Heraldry in York Minster identifies the crest beneath the male figure correctly as that of Ingram, it misidentifies that beneath the female figure as "The Greville Crest"; that crest is actually the Edmonds crest: A greyhound sejant sable bezanty collared or. (The Greville crest is A greyhound's head erased sable bezanty gorged with a collar argent charged with three pellets, similar thematically but not the same at all.) I have pencilled in a correction in my copy of A Guide.
At the peak of the monument is a representation of the Ingram arms and (outsized!) crest:
The arms are blazoned: Azure a chevron between three lions passant or, and the crest, although painted here and on the face of the monument as gold, or or) is blazoned: A cock proper.
All in all, though, I think that you can see just from this one example why it is that I love seeing 17th Century armorial memorials.
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