Gravely Speaking

Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, Georgia

On this white-marble monument in the Oakland Cemetery at Atlanta, Georgia, memorializing the life of an infant boy just short of his second birthday, a Cherub lifts a drapery upward to reveal a coffin. The lifted curtain or drapery represents the passage from one realm to another; the veil that exists between the Earthly realm and the Heavenly one. The drapery represents the last partition between life and death.  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 tasseled black cloth to express the family’s mourning. The draperies would have been kept in place for quite some time even after the body was removed to the grave. This would allow the family to continue to mourn and to express their sorrow.

HUGH

Son H.T. & J.V.D. Inman

Born Oct. 22, 1879

Died Oct. 11, 1881

Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, Georgia

Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, Georgia

This white marble sculpture of a Cherub is poised to write in the Book of Life, represented here as a scroll attached to a tree stump.  The tree stump, which is not fully matured, symbolizes a life cut short.   The Cherub is holding a quill pen which has been broken from the gravestone.  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, including Revelation, Chapter 20:12: “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 were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.”

The monument marks the grave of a nine-year old girl:

Carmel

dau. of Edward F.

& Mary W. Quinn

July 13, 1908

Sept. 20, 1917

Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, Georgia

Cherubim are one of nine orders or choirs of angels which are organized into three spheres, with three choirs in each sphere.  According to Christian tradition, the first sphere, which is made up of the Seraphim, Cherubim, and the Thrones, are considered the closet to Heaven.  In Ezekiel 10:14, the Cherubim are described as having four likenesses or four faces, “And every one had four faces; the first face was the face of a cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.”  Cherubim are most always depicted as chubby babies.

The Cherubim were to be guardian angels.  In two places in the Bible, there role is thus described, first as guardians of the gates at the Garden of Eden and then of the Ark of the Covenant:

Genesis 3:22-24,  [22]“And the LORD GOD said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil:  and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live for ever; [23]Therefore the LORD GOD sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. [24]So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”

I Samuel 4;4, “So the people went to Shiloh, that they might bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims.”

Sculptures of cherubs often adorn the graves of children. Here, the cherub is leaning against an inverted torch. The flames coming from the bottom of the torch look a bit like a mop.  The flame or fire is symbolic of the soul.  The inverted torch represents a life that has been extinguished.  The monument marks the grave of “HARRY” who only lived 17 months.

Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, Georgia

Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, Georgia

Cherubim, an order or choir of angels, are usually portrayed as chubby babies with wings.  In the angel hierarchy cherubim are considered to be in the second highest order of the nine orders of angels.  The Cherubim were sent to Earth to protect the pathway to the Tree of Life.

Cherubim sculptures often adorn the graves of children.  Here, the cherub is leaning against a tree and holding a wreath.  The tree represents a life that has been cut short.  The scroll which contained the inscription is almost completely illegible.  The word “son” is visible, so we know this is the grave of a child, we just don’t know how old he lived to be.