Angel Of Grief

A little post for the art lovers and those into statues of angels.

Angel of Grief is an 1894 sculpture by William Wetmore Story which serves as the grave stone of the artist and his wife at the Protestant Cemetery, Rome. This style of monument is also referred to as "Weeping Angel." It's made of marmor and stone.

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. 

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 . 

The statue represents an angel kneeling on a tombstone with his head on his forearm while crying with his face hidden. His hand is left hanging over the tombstone like powerless due to the sadness and depression the angel is living at the moment. Some flower petals are scattered on the tombstone base like they were left falling by the miserable angel in pain. The wings are represented curved down like in pity on the back of this angel. The body of the angel is like collapsed on the tombstone like he had lost all of his hope.

Pictures of the statue appear on the covers of Evanescence EP by Evanescence (1998), Once by Nightwish (2004), Embossed Dream in Four Acts by Odes of Ecstasy(1998) and Letanías: Capítulo III by Anabantha (2006). All four bands have arguably gothic influences. It is also featured on the album art of The Edges of Twilight by The Tea Party (1995).