Monday Mourning ~ Grieving Ladies of Venice

The Grieving Ladies of Venice

San Michele, Italy

Monday Mourning ~ The Symbolism of Poppies

Because of it's connection with the narcotic properties of opium, the Poppy is asscoiated with Sleep and Death, as seen here in the garland around this ladies head. The red colour of the Poppy has also been connected to Christ's Passion and used to symbolise blood and death.

The Broken Column that she leans upon for support is symbolic of the end of life, especially when that has been cut short. In the mid 1800's, it became the most popular of mortality symbolise, due to its visual impact.

The Wreath she holds is circular in shape and is seen as a common symbol of eternity. It appears to be made of berries, rather than the more usual Laurel leaves that symbolise Immortailty and Victory over death.    

Zorgvlied, Netherlands

More Poppies, but this time from Venice, Italy

San Michele

St. Leonards, Bedfordshire

Friday's Funerary Art ~ Mosaic

On the Cemetery Island of San Michele in Venice, each one of the doorways of the building below is an entrance to an individual private mourning chapel, where prayers and services for the deceased may be said by those families who are able to afford them. Some were very plain and others were clearly neglected and in a very poor state, but the interior of the one below was decorated in beautiful mosaics with gleaming golden tiles - sadly my photos do not do them justice - and although the altar was rather dusty, it had recently been used as the flowers were still fresh.

Fridays Funerary Art ~ Mosaic

San Michele, Venice

Submarine Tragedy ~ An Anchor Update

In my last post on Anchors, I knew that I had another one that could have joined the collection, it comes from San Michele, Venice.
I'm not sure why I held it back from joining the others, but as I flicked through the pages of 'Stories in Stone, a guide to cemetary symbols and iconography' I saw a symbol that I recognised immediately as that of a dolphin.
I had only believed it to be an insignia that related to this particular monument, for around the circle that frames the dolphin, is the word sommergibili (submarine).

However the dolphin represents Salvation, Transformation and Love and this seems a most appropriate symbol given the circumstances.

The anchor is a real one, maybe even from submarine F14 (if they have them that is) and the story is a real tragedy.

For on the 6th Aug. 1928 the F14 was on manoeuvres with student engineers and at 8.40am was accidentally hit and sunk by the ship 'Missori' that was also engaged in the exercise.

The F14 sank in waters of 40 metres in depth and so a rescue of the vessel began. Telegraph contact was maintained between the rescuers and the submarine, but as the oxygen ran out and carbon dioxide increased, battery acid that had escaped became chlorine gas and by 10.50pm all communications had ceased.

Eventually the F14 was brought to the surface and the bodies of all 27 crew members were recovered.

It was said that the bodies of two sailors were found hugging each other and as their tombs show, they will forever more remain by each others side.

      

The F14 Captain Leuitenant Commodore Isador Wiel wrote in his notebook :

"God , Family, Fatherland. And this will be our Gospel. We will bring our hearts, the impact on your graves because everyone knows how to die as the sailors of Italy."

 

Island Cemetery of San Michele, Venice Italy

San Michele is in the lagoon close to Venice and has been the city's cemetery ~ Cimitero ~ since the early nineteenth century. As Venice is an island community, it's not really surprising that its cemetery is also an island of it's very own.

Venetian graves abound with floral tributes and make one of the most colourful cemeteries to be seen. Families make special pilgrimages to these graveyards, heading there en masse on the 1st and 2nd November to lay flowers. In Italy the chrysanthemum is the flower for the dead, thereby making them an unsuitable gift for the living. On these days there are special additional ferry services to the cemetery.

There are two churches on the island, the large San Michele and the smaller San Cristoforo. San Michele was designed by Mauro Codussi in the 1460s and was one of the earliest Renaissance churches in Venice, with a white facade of Istrian marble overlooking the lagoon.

  

The cemetery is divided up into many sections with the usual divide of Catholic and Protestant interments. One such area is given over to the humble memorials of nuns and the sometimes less humble graves of priests. 

There is also a section for gondoliers and the makers of the boats themselves.
It is tradition, that the widows of Gondoliers who die, inherit their husbands Gondolier licence.

Against the far wall you will find the tombs of Sergei Diaghilev, founder of the Ballet Russe and Igor Stravinsky the composer of 'The Firebird', whose resting places are festooned with the offerings from ballet and music lovers. 

Diaghilev and Stravinsky 1921

Other graves of exiles in Venice include Russian Princesses and Counts and the expatriate American poet Ezra Pound whose plot resembles a flowerbed.

Space is limited on the island, although an enlargement is under way, and burials are squeezed in tightly. Nowadays dead Venetians are only guaranteed a few years of rest on San Michele. After a period of around ten years, remains are exhumed and stored in an ossuary. Discreet noticeboards around the entrance list the timetable for exhumations.

San Michele is off the northern shore of Venice, and can be distinguished by its high walls and cypresses. The island is on the route of the regular vaporetto services 41 and 42 to Murano, the stop is called Cimitero.