Michelangelo once said, “The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.” The great artist was merely helping the sculpture emerge.

The Schulze monument in the Hermann Sons Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas is an example of an “emerging gravestone.”  That is, the gravestone is not finished being carved with part of the stone still rough cut.  The entire sculpture beneath has not been completely revealed. Here, however, the unfinished stone is not waiting for the sculpture to be completed but is actually part of the message.  Emerging stones are often believed to mirror the unfinished life of the person for whom the stone is dedicated, perhaps an indication that their life was cut short.