Angel of Grief

(All photos will enlarge when clicked on)

This beautiful tombstone is the 1910 Cassard Monument, found in Green-Wood Cemetery, a National Historic Landmark cemetery, dating back to 1838, located in Brooklyn, New York.  This poignant figure of an angel is known as the "Angel of Grief" or "The Weeping Angel."  It is modeled after a 1894 sculpture by William Wetmore Story, which serves as the grave stone of both the artist and his wife, located in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome.

William Wetmore Story was born to Salem, Massachusetts, in 1819, and graduated from Harvard College in 1838 and Harvard Law School in 1840.  He left the practice of law to become a sculptor and relocated to Italy in 1848.  His most famous sculpture is "Cleopatra," which is part of the collection of The Metropolitan Museum Of Art in New York City.

Sometime over the last hundred years the Cassard angel had lost her hand that dangles over the monument, and there is an effort to raise funds to restore this statue to its original state through the Green-Wood Cemetery's "Saved In Time" program.

My husband and I have been volunteers at Green-Wood Cemetery for the past six years, and we have helped with the Civil War Veteran project and other Historic Fund Projects. You can read more about this magnificent cemetery in previous blogs posts that I wrote by following this link.

This second  mosaic is another tombstone also located in Green-Wood Cemetery which  depicts the "Angel Of Grief.".  The monument is identified only by the name "O'Donahue." This angel's hand holds a wreath. According to Rochester's History -  Glossary of Victorian Cemetery Symbolism   "the use of a wreath, garlands and festoons as a funerary symbol dates back to ancient Greek times and it was adopted into the Christian religion as a symbol of the victory of the redemption.

The laurel wreath is usually associated with someone who has attained distinction in the arts, literature, athletics or the military. The ivy wreath is symbolic of conviviality (gaiety or joviality). The wreath and festoon together symbolize memory."

The remarkable and emotional realism of the "Angel of Grief" has made it famous, and it has become a copied funeral monument model all over the world, especially in the United States, where many reproductions of the work can be found .

Perhaps there is one in a cemetery in your area? 

There are many beautiful sculptures and monuments in Green-Wood Cemetery that I would like to show  from time to time, as the stories behind them are fascinating and historical.  It is a place I never tire of exploring!

* Edited to add this beautiful prose written by William Wetmore Story, which seems very apropos for his Angel of Grief sculpture:

"But the gray and the cold are haunted

By a beauty akin to pain, --

By a sense of a something wanted,

That never will come again.”

I am linking this post to Susan's "Outdoor Wednesday" event on her blog A Southern Daydreamer.
Please visit Susan's blog to find her outdoor post and links to other  participating blogs.