Photos of the Staglieno Cemetery beautiful monumental Italian Bourgeois Realism sculptures, Genoa.
Heavens Gate Photo Series
It is so often the case that historic buildings and art are not where you expect them to be. If you want to photograph Italian19th century Naturalist Sculpture you don’t to a museum, you go to Genoa to take photos of the Staglieno sculptures. I have called my series of black and white photos of the Staglieno sculptures Heaven’s Gate
See More Photos From The Staglieno Photo Series
Photos of the Staglieno Sculptures
Sculptures found at the Staglieno cemetery are remarkable and incredibly for the intricacy of their ultra realistic style. Known of Italian, or Bourgeois, Realism sculptures, the skilled sculptors who created them left out no details in their works. Most of the statues faces have tiny skin pores sculpted into them and, details like tears are rendered with great precision. Even fine eye lashes are depicted and tiny stitches in the clothing are loving carved into the stone.
The sculptures were commissioned by and depict, the great and good of Genoa at the end of the 19th century. They wear the fashions and hair styles of the period, and look so real, that they leaves you with the impression that you have actually met the people in person.
Sacred Stone Photo Series
Heavens Gate photos of Staglieno are part of a bigger series of photos I have worked on for a few years called Sacred Stone. The series explores how stone has been used in sacred objects and buildings over millennia .
Those that commissioned their sculptures at Staglieno were hoping to buy immortality of sorts and, to some extent they achieved their ambitions. Grave art is about leaving something permanent of ones existence and few materials last longer than stone.
The sculptures of the Staglieno Cemetery are stone time machines that connect us with people of Genoa now long dead.
Black & White Photography
Black and white photography can give a timeless quality to an images. Without colour it is sometimes hard to date a photograph as it strips a lot of narrative out of the photo. This leaves only textures, form and shape for us to read.
I hope you enjoy these photos from the series and if you want to see the rest of the Heavens Gate series.
About The Staglieno Cemetery
In 1804 Napoleon made the Edict of Saint-Cloud in which he banned burials in churches and in towns for health and safety reasons. This led to Genoa planning an out of town cemetery on hill near Staglieno and in 1835 by architect Carlo Barabino. Today the Camposanto di Staglieno Monumental Cemetery of Genoa is one of the biggest in Europe. To date it is the last resting place of 60,000 corpses.
Bourgeois Realism Sculptures
What makes the Camposanto di Staglieno Monumental Cemetery remarkable though is the quality of its sculptured funereal tombs. Commissions of sculpture by the wealthy 19th century Bourgeoise of Genoa have made Staglieno one of the most important places to see some internationally important sculptors work. One of the most important styles of sculpture found in the Staglieno Cemetery is known as Bourgeois Realism or naturalism. It was an international style of the 1860s and 1870s..
There are many touching sculptures at Camposanto di Staglieno as can be seen in our photo gallery. A young child is lifted up to kiss the departed father, a widows tears are illustrated as she prays at her husbands tomb..
The Peanut Seller
A street “peanut seller,” of Genoa commissioned an endearing statue of herself while still alive (see slideshow photos). She is depicted complete with strings of peanuts and cakes. Reminders of the transience of life are also depicted on tombs with young nude women gazing meaningfully at skulls. Finally the message from the Staglieno tombs is that death is a natural state that comes to all of us and can’t be avoided.
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