Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-06-08
MONUMENTS

III his paper entitled a "Flofentli1e Mo-
saic." in the June Century, Mr.. w. ID.
Howells makes the following comment
after having been to visit Santa Croce:
'By the time you have gone the round OF
the strutting and mincing allegories, and
the pompous effigies with which art here,
as everywhere, renders death ridiculous,
Won have scarcely the courage to pene-
trate to those remote chapels where the
Giotto frescoes are" At first the re-
mark seems cold and irreverent. and
seems too disrespectful to that which the
sorrowing heart holds most sacred but
on rejecting it will be found to be Just,
and TO come from q reverence for the
tomb and not from any irreverence. Too
often the sculptured tomb makes death
ridiculous, as Mr.. Howells says, and
sorrow and death are forgotten as one
pauses at the side of tomb containing
the mortal remains OF some great man
whose memory the world honors, but
where the artist has sought to
make himself far greater than
he whose fame he would en-
phasize. Ostentation and display take
their place, and it is sought to make the
work in stone greater than the work OF
him whose memory it enshrines. Many
of the monuments in Westminster Abbey
are hideous to behold, and mar the
beauty of that graceful building. 1t is to
the credit of the kings and queens who
there repose, that their tombs are far less
ostentatious than those Of many Of their
subjects But why should man seek to make
death less terrible and real than it is by
erecting cold and pretentious monuments
to hide dreaded death? The plain and
simple tablet which tells that beneath
! there lies what was once a moving, NOR
tai man, is far more impressive than the
guady display so frequently found IN
| places dedicateS to the reception OF the
illustrious dead. The clOister of West
minister is far more impressive than the
nave. Death is the common heritage OF
all, and to be ready to meet it when it
comes, should be mans endeavor. 1t is
resignation far more than monuments
that man needs when death reigns. Man
should not conceal from himself death S
reality. For, as Jeremy Taylor says:
The same is the portion of every man and
every woman, the heritage Of worms and
serpents. rottenness and cold dishonour, and
! our beauty so changed, that our acquaint-
ance quickly knew US not; and that change
/ mingled with Us so much horror. or else
meets so with our fears and weak discouTs-
/ ings. that they who SIX hours ago tended
/ upon us either with charitable or ambitious
services, cannot without some regret stay in
! the room alone where the body lies stripped
of its life and honour. | have read of fair
Young German eentlemi II who living often
refused to be pictured, Tut put OFF the I'M
portunity OF his friends desire by giving
wav that after a few days burial they might
send a painter to his vault, and if they saw
cause for it draw the imGge of his death unto
the life: they did SO, and found bis face half
eaten. and his midriff and backbone full of
serpents; and so he stands pictured among
his armed ancestors. So does the fairest
beauty change. and il viii be as bad with
you as with me: and then what servants
shall we have to wait upon US in the grave?
what friends to visit Us? what officious
people to cleanse away the moist and un-
wholesome cloud reflected upon our faces
from the sides of the weeping vaults, which
are the longest weepers fer our funeral?,
The picture is not pleasant one, nor
does it fatter mans vanity; aud when
death is viewed as here represented, the
more stately the monument, tie more
hollow its mockery. Yes, Mr., Howells
is right when he terms them "the strut
ting and mimicing aliegories, and the
pompous eiiigies with which art here, as
everywhere, renders death ridiculous. ."