Green-Wood Cemetery: Statues

Before stumbling upon the mossy tombstone jackpot on a recent trip through Green-Wood Cemetery, I had been paying particular attention to the statues I came across. I mentioned that Green-Wood is so large that picking a specific theme makes a walk through the cemetery seem manageable and like I'm on a little scavenger hunt. I'm less likely to become overwhelmed, and more likely to see things I might not notice on a macro level.

Statues really humanize a cemetery experience, much more than words on a tombstone ever could. A lot of the statues are not of the deceased exactly—although I always come across I suspect are done in a specific likeness—but represent general themes such as mourning or are a nod to the afterlife or reproduce religious imagery. Angels or cherubs are very common, and although they usually follow a prescribed look—women with wings and draped gowns—it's remarkable how many variations you can find on a simple premise.

This time I noticed three separate statues of women with similar hairstyles, dresses and poses, and they appeared to be pregnant, which I've never seen before. Green-Wood also has its fair share of creepy children statues—which I assume are sculpted to actually look like the deceased—and although I have no use for living children in my life, their haunting stone counterparts are some of my favorite finds.

Mourning women are very common, including those that look as if they're weeping as well as those who could be mistaken for a visitor, holding flowers, wreaths or other offerings. Statues of men are less common—I once read that a high percentage of magazine covers feature women because women like to compare themselves to other women, and men like to look at women, and I wonder if the same idea applies to cemetery statues. The statues I did find of men tend to be mostly portraits, and the generic male sculptures I've seen have a very angelic, almost feminine look to them. I did also find one dog sculpture during this visit, and although I realize that each sculpture represents the loss of an actual human life, it's the thought of a faithful canine companion guarding his owner's final resting place that will always make me tear up.