Gravely Speaking

The Edith Allen Clark (1883-1965) polished black granite monument at the Metairie Cemetery at New Orleans, Louisiana, features a large circular bronze sculpture of the Virgin Mary and the dead body of Jesus Christ, known as a pieta, surrounded by more than a dozen cherubs.

Works of art, usually sculptures, depicting this subject first began to appear in Germany in the 1300s and are referred to as “vesperbild” in German.  Images of Mary and the dead body of Jesus began to appear in Italy in the 1400s. The most famous of these sculptures is Michelangelo’s pieta which he sculpted for St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, carved when he was only 24 years old.  Pieta is Italian for “pity.”  The bronze is reminiscent of the sculptures that were first popularized in Germany depicting the Lamentation.

In the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History (http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/2001.78 (October 2006)) a Bohemian Pieta on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is described in details that as easily could apply to the monument in Metairie Cemetery, “Images of the Virgin with the dead Christ reflect late medieval developments in mysticism that encouraged a direct, emotional involvement in the biblical stories… The sculptor exploits the formal and psychological tensions inherent in the composition…Christ’s broken, emaciated body, naked except for the loincloth, offers a stark contrast to the Virgin’s youthful figure, clad in abundant folds.”

This particular bronze was sculpted by the famed artist Felix Weihs de Weldon (1907-2003), who created over 1200 sculptures that can be found on all seven continents.  He was, however, best known for the great and dramatic 100-ton bronze statue based on the iconic photograph taken by Joe Rosenthal on February 23, 1945, when six soldiers raised the flag over Iwo Jima.  De Weldon was directed to create a realistic memorial.  Three of those soldiers who lifted the flag modeled for De Weldon.  The other three soldiers had died in various actions after the flag was raised, so he created their images from photograpghs.  The sculpture, officially titled, United States Marine Corps War Memorial, pays tribute to the brave soldiers who raised the flag that day at Iwo Jima.

Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo New York

William Arthur Rogers

(1851-1946)

The dramatic 10-foot bronze sculpture “Aspiration” was created in 1926 by Harriet Whitney Frishmuth (1880-1980) for the Rogers monument in the Forest Lawn Cemetery at Buffalo, New York.  Frishmuth was well known for her sculptures of women.  Frishmuth studied briefly with Auguste Rodin in Paris, Cuno Von Uechtritz-Steinkirch at Berlin, and Gutzon Borglum in New York.

In 1933, another version of the “Aspiration” was carved out of a single block of granite for the Henry Berwind (1859-1932) monument in the Laurel Hill Cemetery, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The stone version of “Aspiration” marks the grave of businessman Henry “Harry” Berwind, vice president of the Berwind-White Coal Company, run by his brother, Edward.

Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York

JOSEPH QUADRI

HE BRAVELY GAVE HIS LIFE

FOR THE CAUSE OF HIS COUNTRY

BORN DEC 28, 1896 DIED OCT 2, 1918

Private Joseph Quadri of Brooklyn was killed in World War I.  His body was transported to the United States on the transport ship Princess Matoika along with 417 of his fellow fallen comrades in arms and ten fallen nurses.

The gravestone marking his grave features a mourning figure bent in despair and sorrow looking at the image of a doughboy, possibly in the likeness of Private Quadri. The willow motif on this gravestone is not unusual; in fact, the willow is one of the most common symbols found in American cemeteries. What makes this willow special is that it is carved in a three dimensional form draping the top of the stone in willow branches making for a dramatic memorial.

The secular meaning of the willow symbolism represents what one might expect; sorrow and grief, it is after all a “weeping” willow. However, in Christian symbolism, the willow represents immortality because of the tree’s ability to shed so many limbs and survive.