Effigies of knights from a tomb shown kneeling in prayer.. In the German version, this plate is labeled as "a knight and his son," but in the French edition, it is described as "the manner of placing knights in the tomb. In ancient monuments, knights and their wives were often placed in the attitude shown here.". Handcolored copperplate engraving of a knight from a religious military order from Robert von Spalart's "Historical Picture of the Costumes of the Principal People of Antiquity and of the Middle Ages" (1796).