From Greek Architecture to Greek Myth

Posted on June 27, 2012 by gravelyspeaking

Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, Kentucky

The Earthly remains of Benjamin and Irene Smith were laid to rest in a solemn and gray granite Greek revival-style mausoleum.  The mausoleum is of the Doric order—characterized by the fluted columns with no base resting directly on the stylobate, slightly curved and unadorned capital.  The architrave (stone panel that traces around the building just above the column) is truncated and plain, as is the frieze which is generally enhanced with trigyphs and bas-reliefs.  The cornice (the triangle-shaped architectural element above the door) is topped with an acanthus stone work called an acroterion all which completes the plain and solemn tomb.

The austere outside of the tomb in no way prepares you for the statue that you will see if you peer through the iron grill-work door.  Inside is a finely-carved marble statue, produced by German-born artist Emile Wolff, of the boy from the mythological tale of Hercules and the first of the twelve labors.

In that Greek myth, Hercules was tasked with slaying the Nemean lion, a ferocious and seemingly indestructible animal that was tormenting villagers from the town of Cleonae.  A small boy from the village pleaded with Hercules to slay the beast and said if Hercules was able to do the deed the villagers would offer up a sacrifice to Zeus in his honor.  Hercules was able to pierce the lion’s impenetrable skin with its own claws defeating the lion.  Hercules skinned the lion and took back the animal skin to show the villagers that the lion was dead.  Here the boy in the sculpture wears the lion skin.

What is unclear is the significance of the statue to the four people—Benjamin and Irene Smith and Frances “Fanny” Smith Bullitt and Alexander Clark Bullitt—laying in repose in the mausoleum.

Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, Kentucky

 

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Gothic Architecture

Posted on June 25, 2012 by gravelyspeaking

Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, Kentucky

The C.W. Gheens Mausoleum is an architectural jewel nestled in the famed Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky.  Built in 1874 for Charles W. Gheens, a wholesale grocer, real estate investor and cement producer, its design gives the viewer a sense of height.  Even though the mausoleum is relatively small, the design makes it seem to be much taller than it actually is with the long thin pinnacles on the four gables and the central dome stretching upward toward the Heavens.  The doorway of the tomb displays the pointed arch, a characteristic Gothic design that was part of the transformation away from the Romanesque rounded arch and heavy design. Another feature common to Gothic architecture is the tracery found framing the small round window and the trefoil window above the doorway.

Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, Kentucky

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Flowers

Posted on June 24, 2012 by gravelyspeaking

Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, Kentucky

Victorians used many flowers in their funeral practices.  The body lay in state in the parlor of a home as long as four days, often without the benefit of being emblamed.  To cover the odors, Victorians filled the parlor with flowers.

Individual flowers were used, too, in the symbolism of death.  For instance, the rose could represent love and beauty or the messianic hope that Christ would return.  The lily of the valley could represent the tears of the Virgin Mary or the quality of innocence.  The Easter lily symbolized the resurrection.

In the photograph above, the young female figure, head looking down in reflection and sorrow, is seen holding an Easter lily in one hand and gently dropping one of its flowers to the ground.  This act is a recurring funerary motif designed to remind the viewer that life is short.  Many of the Victorian funerary symbols expressed the transitory nature of life–how one could be strong and vital one day and dead the next–such as the broken column or the broken bud.

The sculpture of the young woman placing flowers on graves also recreates a tradition begun by the ancient Greeks and Romans that we practice to this day.

Cypress Grove Cemetery, New Orleans, Louisiana

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The Veil

Posted on June 23, 2012 by gravelyspeaking

First Baptist Churchyard, Kingsbury, Indiana

The matching segmented-top white marble gravestones (they probably wore matching bowling shirts, too!) of John and Rachel Ann Craft, husband and wife, are located at the First Baptist Churchyard in Kingsbury, Indiana.

Each gravestone displays curtains which are pulled back to reveal a coffin.  The lifted curtain represents the passage from one realm to another; the veil that exists between the Earthly realm and the Heavenly one.  The coffin is a mortality symbol to remind the viewer that life is short and that we will all soon die.

This motif also depicts the Victorian custom of the body laying in state in the family’s parlor.  It was also customary that nearly everything in the parlor would have been draped in fringed and tasselled black cloth to express the family’s mourning.  The draperies would have been kept in place for quite sometime even after the body was removed to the grave.  This would allow the family to continue to mourn and to express their sorrow.

First Baptist Churchyard, Kingsbury, Indiana

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The Curtain

Posted on June 21, 2012 by gravelyspeaking

Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, Kentucky

The curtain or the veil  symbolizes the exit from one realm to the entrance to another.  Here a little girl has made the passage from this life to the next as she seemingly takes one last glimpse at Earthly world.

Her inscription reads:

To the dear memory of Lillie, daughter of M. Prather and Lt. Col. Charles C. Gilbert.  Born at Fort Bridger, Wyoming Ter. March 15th, 1870.  Died at Camp Baker, Montana Ter. March 16th, 1875.  Aged 5 years and 1 day.  “She liv’d as lives a peaceful dove.  She died as blossoms die and now her spirit floats above, a seraph in the sky.”

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Father Time and the Weeping Virgin

Posted on June 18, 2012 by gravelyspeaking

Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, Kentucky

In this funerary sculpture, a winged Father Time is depicted here as an old man, with a long beard and a large pair of wings. Father Time is standing with one of the tools of his trade that makes him instantly recognizable–a scythe. The scythe, a tool that was once used in the harvest, symbolizes the Divine harvest.  Just as wheat is cut down by the scythe during the harvest, so are souls by Father Time.

Father Time is standing behind a “weeping virgin”. Father Time is delicately untangling the Virgin’s hair. The act of untangling represents that with perserverance all things can be accomplished. She is holding either an urn, a symbol of death, or a weeping jar that was used to collect the tears of those who were mourning.  The urn is resting on a book which most likely represents the Book of Life.  In Judaism and Christianity, the names of the righteous were recorded in the Book of Life; they were assured entry into Heaven.  The Book is referenced many times in the Bible (King James Version), including Revelations, Chapter 20,  Verse 12: “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God: and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead…Verse 15: “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

They both stand before a broken column, the symbol of a life cut short.

The bas-relief below is slightly different, though, much of the symbolism is the same.  Again Father Time is holding a scythe, but also has an hourglass at his feet–a recurring icon reminding the living that time marches on and as the sands of time pass by all come closer to death.  In other words, life is short. The weeping woman is holding in one hand a sprig of acacia, which represents the immortality of the soul, and in the other a rolled scroll, symbolic of life and time.

Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland, Ohio

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A Father’s Day Wish

Posted on June 16, 2012 by gravelyspeaking

Wilbur Rife

About a decade and a half ago, AT&T reported that nearly 20 million more calls are made on Mother’s Day than on Father’s Day.  Father’s Day, however, had the distinction of being the biggest day for collect phone calls!

My own father did not like talking on the phone especially long distance.  He viewed the phone as a utility to be used sparingly.  He also talked on the phone like the line didn’t work and to be heard, one would have to speak very loudly directly into the phone—he had a booming voice and nearly negated the need for the phone anyway.  I think he could have opened the door and reached most of his targets by simply shouting in their general direction.

I can only remember talking with my father once on the telephone, long distance, and it was not collect.  Before the call was over he had reminded me three times it was long distance—the airtime was dear—and he was wanting to cut the call short, even though, I had called him!

Father’s Day is a second rate holiday and an afterthought.  The modern Mother’s Day was first celebrated in 1908, Father’s Day, however, came two years later.

So, there you have it, Father’s Day, second to Mother’s Day, a second rate day for fathers that children feel okay with calling and sticking the bill to the old man if they think about making the call at all.

Though, the holiday is second rate, my father was a first rate father.  He passed away over 32 years ago and a day doesn’t go by that I don’t think of him.  And when I go back home, I always visit his grave.

I would gladly pay the toll for a long distance call to him if I could only talk to him again.

Frazier Cemetery, rural Harrison County, Iowa

 

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A Mother’s loss

Posted on June 14, 2012 by gravelyspeaking

Lake View Cemetery, Seattle, Washington

Sometimes while I wander through cemeteries I just read the epitaphs.  The following epitaph that I read in the Lake View Cemetery in Seattle, Washington, has really stuck with me because it is poignant and displays the loss and pain that a mother felt when her two children died.  The gravestone doesn’t give any details of the birth and death dates of Jimmie and Celia but the poem tells of her pain and her hope that when she died she would be able to be with her babies again:

Oh, it was hard that April and May day

To see my son and daughter pass away

The angels hovering about their room

At morning whispered, Jimmie and Celia come

Then, on wings of heavenly love

They bore them to His home above

Their loving hearts are now at rest

God took them home when He thought best

When we are done with toil and care

We will meet our dear Jimmie and Celia there.

From their loving Mother

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Calla Lily

Posted on June 12, 2012 by gravelyspeaking

Tomlinson Cemetery, rural Muncie, Indiana

The calla lily is a stunner with it’s long slender stem, brillant white flowers, and broad leaves.  Though it is called a lily it is actually not in the flower family liliacea.

The South African native is actually a cousin to the jack-in-the pulpit and is in the family of araceae. In Africaans the calla lily is called the Varkoor, or pig’s ear, because that is what they believed it resembled. The calla lily was imported out of South Africa in the later part of the nineteenth and early twentieth century.  It almost immediately became associated with Easter and is sometimes referred to as an Easter lily.

Tomlinson Cemetery, rural Muncie, Indiana

The calla lily represents majestic beauty and is often used on gravestones to symbolize marriage.  In some cases, they can also represent the resurrection.

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Tree-stump chair

Posted on June 10, 2012 by gravelyspeaking

The rustic movement of the mid-nineteenth century was characterized by designs that were made to look like they were from the country. Elegant and slim curved lines in furniture gave way to bulkier and heavier forms made from pieces that came directly from the trees often with the bark still intact. Homes, cabins, and garden houses were designed in the rustic style eschewing classic designs. In decorative furniture this often took the form of chairs made from rough tree limbs curved to form arms and chair backs, chair legs made from tree roots growing upwards. In cabins, railings and the siding were made from unhewn logs with the bark still in place.

In funerary art, tombstones took on the look of tree stumps. The gravestones were purposefully designed to look like trees that had been cut and left in the cemetery to mark a grave. Most of these tree-stump tombstones were carved from limestone, which is easier to carve, though some are made from marble and even a few from granite. Often, the gravestones were carved to look like rustic furniture. Benches and chairs can be found in many cemeteries. The creativity of the carvers were boundless. Thousands of tree-stump tombstones exist in nearly as many designs.

Here the tree-stump tombstone in the Greenbush Cemetery at Lafayette, Indiana, is carved into the form of an empty chair.  The chair back and the arms of the chair are carved to look like the chair is formed out of tree branches with the several logs cut logs on end forming the base of the chair.

In funerary symbolism the vacant chair symbolizes the loss of a loved one.

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