Saturday 2 April 2011

The Oneto Tomb in Staglieno and some clones i've found...

This first post for April 2011 is  a special one:

First it's time to thank you all for regulary visiting me. This week the 3.000th visit on this blog happened!

Secondly this post is a bit of a rerun of this post.  But this time i'll show you the Angel of the Oneto Tomb for comparisons sake.

Here's the original:



As i've written before (and i'm not alone) this is a stunning piece of art.

The facial expression alone is driving critics mad around the globe.

Is she grieving? Is she bored? Is she somewhere else? She's so ambigious and  mysterious. But above all she's such a beauty.












Since this sculpture is so famous it is unavoidable that there are copies of her on other cemeteries.

And gues what: I've found two! The first example is like a low-budget-version. I've found it at the Cemetery in La Spezia, Italy which is about 60 miles south of Staglieno.




It is much smaller than the original and since it is made out of cheaper material (concrete i guess) and since it's very exposed to the weather it is falling into decay.














The last example i've found is quite something else. It is  in Germany, Cemetery Hannover Stöcken. And, my word, this one is not famous for it's modesty:





As you can see the artist tried to copy the Oneto Angel very exactly, but he failed miserably when it comes to the face. The Hannover Angel is more or less smiling and does not carry the mysterious aura that goes with the original.

But don't get me wrong: It is still a beautiful copy. And i very much like it. It's just not that outstanding as the original.

4 comments:

  1. There are many copies/versions; most I've seen are better than the copies you shot.
    There are 2 in Green-Wood in Brooklyn. There is one in the Bronx Woodlawn. All of these are very good copies. I put one on my CD cover "Inside the Marble Zoo" (I'm also a musician and Cem Photog.)
    There's another in the US shown in John Brown's book (I forgot. where but I think more inland from the East Coast).
    I'm sure there are many more out there I don't know about...I didn't know of these here before I read your excellent Blog.
    I have a Cemetery room at my site;
    bobgilesart.com

    Danke,
    Bob

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  2. Just found your blog, great stuff!! I read in a book and I could be wrong but the artist that did this sculpture fell in love with the model or it was her mistress or something to that degree. Anyone know if there is any truth to that? Been to the pere lachaise in Paris a few times. It's very crowded not by people but stones so I always see something new there.

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  4. There is a version of this statue marking the Luyties grave in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, MO, minus the wings.

    http://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Luyties&GSiman=1&GScid=27534&GRid=3100&

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