Spring Angels, Flowers, and Beautiful Vistas

My husband and I were at Brooklyn, New York's historic, 172 year old Green-Wood Cemetery again this weekend, taking part in a volunteer session where we are assisting the cemetery to remove important papers regarding each grave plot from their storage in envelopes and then placing them into archival quality folders to help preserve them for the future.  Whenever we finish our work we take a stroll through some of the 478 acres of beautiful hilly grounds, and I take photographs. The photo mosaic above (all photos can be seen enlarged by clicking on them) is of some of  the many angel monuments and other statuary.

Spring flowers and blossoming trees were in evidence everywhere in the cemetery, as you can see by this photo mosaic.  Robins were plentiful and hard at work looking for bugs to eat.

While walking on one of the highest hills of the cemetery I was excited to spot a famous statue in the distance outside of the Gothic Arches of the cemetery's 5th Ave entrance.  Can you see it?

A closer view -- look to the right.

It is the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor!

From another hill in the cemetery there is another pretty vista that can be seen through the branches of a flowering cherry tree.

It is a distant view of the Empire State building in Manhattan.   It was really a lovely day to enjoy the Spring weather and all the rebirth of nature.  I hope you spent your weekend in an equally wonderful way!

I'm linking this post to Mary at The Little Red House blog's Mosaic Monday event.  Please visit Mary today to see her pretty mosaic and links to blogs with many more!

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Resurrection Angel at Green-Wood Cemetery

This stunningly beautiful angel in the photo mosaic above is a bronze memorial on top of a substantial granite base of a grave identified only by the name "Valentine."  It is one of the approximately 106,000 monuments in the National Historic Landmark Green-Wood Cemetery located in Brooklyn, New York, which was established in the year 1838.

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The angel was sculpted by the Italian-born artist Aldofo Appoloni, (1855 - 1923), who sculpted several other funerary monuments, found both in the United States and Italy. His name appears on the eastern side of the base of the angel, along with the word "Roma."

One of his better known sculptures is Winged Victory on the "Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele" in Rome. The base of the angel also identifies that it was made at "G. Nisini Fuse" which is deemed as one of Italy's finest 19th century bronze foundries.

The words "Ego Sum Resurrectio Et Vita" are inscribed in the granite base, and translated from Latin as "I am the Resurrection and the Life."

The "G. Nisini Fuse" inscription at the western facing base of the angel.

The angel is exquisite!  Notice the realistic detail of the feathers in her wings and the delicate draping of her gauzy robes.

A view of the back of the angel's flowing robes.

Her expressive face, with eyes turned upward, and arms outstretched with open fingers, displays such a uplifting feeling of grace and motion!  It is truly a valuable work of art worthy of being in the finest museum, and is one of my favorite sculptures among many beautiful ones in the cemetery.

  

Angel of Grief

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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.

Angels and Accordions at Green-Wood Cemetery

Please click to enlarge to see details

The angels in the mosaic above are just a few of the many beautiful statues found in Green-Wood Cemetery, located at 500 25th Street in Brooklyn, New York. Founded in 1838, as one of America's first rural cemeteries, Green-Wood Cemetery soon developed an international reputation for its magnificent beauty and became a fashionable place to be buried. Its 478 acres of hills, valleys, glacial ponds and paths contain the largest outdoor collection of 19th and 20th century statuary and mausoleums. Many famous Americans are buried here, and among its 500,00 permanent residents are Louis Comfort Tiffany, Boss Tweed, Leonard Bernstein, Henry Ward Beecher, and Horace Greeley. In 2006 Green-Wood was designated a National Historic Landmark.

This is one of my favorite residents, the Indian Princess "Do Hum Me" (1824–1843) She tragically died only five weeks after her marriage. If you click on and enlarge the mosaic above you can read the inscriptions on her grave stone and see the bas relief plaque depiction of her grieving husband by artist Robert Launitz.

My husband and I have been volunteers at Green-Wood Cemetery for many years assisting with the Civil War Veteran Project, in which approximately 3,300 Civil War veterans buried in Green-Wood have been identified. We are still in the process of finding more veterans in the cemetery records and on the grounds. The above stones are new ones ordered from the Veteran's Administration to replace the worn ones in the background of the two Prentiss brothers. Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, one brother fought for the north, and one for the south, and both were mortally wounded in the 1865 siege of Petersburg, Virginia. They reconciled on the battle field in an emotional scene, and died within months of each other. A third brother who lived in Brooklyn had them buried side by side at Green-Wood.

Please click on to enlarge to see details

Last weekend, as part of the "Open House New York" event, Green-Wood Cemetery hosted "Angels and Accordions," a beautiful musical and dance performance choreographed by Martha Bowers of Dance Theatre Etcetera, features a cast of 30 dancers, original music by Guy Klucevsek and Bob Goldberg, played live by a band of accordionists, and included a visual installation inside the Catacombs designed by photographer Alexander Heilner. It was truly a beautiful performance as the dancers portrayed both mouners and angels and then went on to pose in the cemetery as watchful living angels.

I am linking this postt to Mary of The Little Red House Mosaic Monday blog event. Please visit Mary's blog today to see links to other blogs participating today with their beautiful and interesting mosaics.