Mantua's Monumental Cemetery (1822)Mantova Museo Urbano Diffuso
The history of the area where the municipal cemetery is located today, next to the road that goes from Mantua to Cremona, is long and complex. As is well known, at the end of the 18th century the problem of distancing cemeteries from urban areas was posed. Shortly after, a “plot of land outside Porta Pradella, on the so-called road of the Angels, one mile from the City” was identified. April 13, 1824, a Municipal Congregation decided to erect a wall surrounding the cemetery, which had already been active for two years. From then on a series of progressive enlargements were carried out, as set out in the report dated June 1863, drafted by the engineer Romeo Rho. However, the first project for the definition of the perimeter dates to 1886 and was never carried out. More competitions and proposals followed, until the first years of the 20th century, when a magniloquent plan in an eclectic style, with references to ancient architecture, was conceived by Ernesto Pirovano. Yet the works were delayed again, and, paradoxically, the actual construction of a facade displayed a sober style, very similar to a Rationalist one. The definitive version dates to 1934, the same year Pirovano died. On All Souls' Day in 1939, the “Voce di Mantova” praised the austere beauty of the monumental facade.If the history of the erection of the cemetery’s boundaries is long and troubled, it is also true that the number of monuments inside it is remarkable: they constitute an open-air museum of sculpture and architecture from the 1900s and the late 1800s. In fact, where political power hesitated for a long time, the bourgeois families from Mantua adorned the tombs of their relatives with a style that is both artistic and pathetic. Thus the elegance of the original site, enlarged on more occasions, also allows to admire traces from a remote epoch, remarkable in their artistic sober effectiveness.
A romantic venue
Small tombs, humble tombs, larger burials, calm and imposing monuments, memories from the past: around the tree that was once the centre of the cemetery, a series of different artefacts are gathered, erected by families from different social classes, made similar by a common artistic taste, the shared colour of the materials and by the same desire to remember and cherish loved ones, between marble aediculae, silent statues and sudden flights of sentiment.
Monumento Valentini
The Mantuan bourgeois entrepreneur Pietro Valentini was a known for being an art collector and an important donor. He died in 1895, and his heirs decided to dedicate a large monument to him in the Borgo Angeli cemetery, with a competition won by the ninth sketch presented by the sculptor Monti. The artists were actually two: Silvio and Alessandro Monti, from a well-known family from Cremona. The importance of the monument is due on the one hand to its position, aligned with the entrance, on the other to the large angel made in Carrara marble, a symbol of peace, towering over two figures in bronze, that seem to be sitting on the low flight of steps below. In particular, here we can admire the sculpture often called “Il Lavoro” (work), executed in the Raffaele Ceriani smelters in Milan. The figure, with a large moustache, is in fact intended as an expression of the industriousness of a lifetime. His proud gaze fits perfectly with the workshop overalls, an ample shirt and a long apron. The way the statue seems to fall and lean against the steps, conveying a sturdy tension, is admirable.
Mother and sons
It is not known where the large statue in bronze of a female figure that adorns the Valentini monument, standing opposite the man representing work, was cast. It is however certain that the women depicted, who is carrying a young boy in her arms, and is accompanied by an older boy, represents the Pietà (pity or piety). The cultural climate at the end of the 1800s gave rise to an imagined union between the most humble working classes and illuminated entrepreneurs whose intention it was to guide the people toward economic progress. This pensive figure aptly conveys this ideology; she is embracing her children, real or imaginary, in a preciously decorated cloak. The nobility of her features is well represented by the artists, who created one of the most interesting burial groups in the cemetery of Mantua.
Monumento Panzani-De Bernardi
An angel of the Last Judgement is represented with solemnity, but at the same time with a reticent grace that almost seems to want to suddenly awaken the souls of the dead. The beautiful bas-relief is a typical artwork of the early 20th century, created in a style that could be defined as Liberty, that does not, however, discard the plasticity of the more ancient masters of the renown Italian sculptural tradition.
Monumento Artioli
The figure of a sorrowful woman, in white Carrara marble, almost blends with the large slab that looks like a vertical mountain wall. The woman holds her hands to her breasts, her face is slightly inclined upward, her hair framing it with a modernist taste. The author, Carlo Cerati, who had the honor of being portrayed in a beautiful drawing by the great Vincenzo Gemito, is a very important artist who punctuates the Mantuan cemetery with many of his creations. After studying at Brera, he attended the Milanese artistic milieu, while simultaneously living an active adhesion to the anarchist faith. Returning to Mantua, he gave us a series of works often attributed to a liberty eclecticism. His genius is expressed in a strong balance between pain and figurative power, sometimes recalling the teaching of the most illustrious Italian masters.
Monumento Colombo
We know from a letter that Cerati did not want to reduce the size of the complex, since he meant that the sculpture, representing a naked man, hopelessly collected in himself, had the same weight as the high plate above it. The title of the statue is precisely Desperation, in white Carrara marble veined with pink. The background marble depicts Jacob's dream, an episode taken from the Genesis in which the coming advent of a Messiah is prophesied. The monument is certainly one of the most interesting works of the place. In all evidence, the reference is to the famous Thinker of Auguste Rodin, who in turn drew this image from the impressive Door of Hell that he had created since 1880.
Monumento Pedrazzoli
The work indicated with the title "Silence", or "La dormiente", is partly in Pietra serena (the base) and partly in white marble veined with pink. Here Carlo Cerati engages with a patheticism that has deep roots in Italian art. His mastery gives the figure near death a force worthy of the greatest sculptors. If it is true that the bed seems to absorb in a definitive embrace the sparse features of the character, however there is a tremor in the marble folds that seems to allude to a distant (yet real) awakening.
Monumento Bertolazzi-Scalvini
Francesco Riccardo Monti from Cremona was the last of a long series of sculptor artists belonging to his family, and had the opportunity, throughout the early part of the twentieth century, to illustrate his skills all over the world. He realized numerous works and plaques related to the fallen of the Great War. At the time of the fascist government, despite having already considerable fame in Italy, he decided to leave. He left for a long journey that first took him to New York and then to Manila, the city where he moved permanently in 1930. Condemned to the shooting for working with the Philippine resistance during the Japanese invasion, he was saved by the intercession of the apostolic delegate. After the war, his prestige in the Asian country grew dramatically. Here we see, portrayed in Carrara marble, a feminine and gentle figure. She opens her arms welcoming the fate of death. Note the beauty of the drapery and the noble and intense face.
Monumento Cervi-Bonomi
The author accompanied the project of the monument with a significant inscription: "The crash: a human existence falls to the ground as seized by a sudden pain." These words, although characterized by a typical rhetoric, well describe the great figure that adorns the tomb. A young woman, who ambiguously rises or falls, shows her head in a yearning for vital testimony. The relationship between the partial nudity of the body and the garment is beautiful, as well as the expression, although the face is deliberately schematic, almost ideal.
Monumento Cantoni
The sculptor, born in the village which also gave birth to Tazio Nuvolari, designed in style déco this graceful monument, an interesting union of architecture and sculpture. Obviously, he is the author of the bas-relief depicting the Lamentation over the dead Christ, so finely embossed as to represent almost a hint of figuration, which contrasts with the solidity of the other elements of the tomb. The bas-relief and the side vases are made of bronze, the rest is in Serpentine marble.
Monumento Venturini
Best known as a painter, Vindizio Nodari Pesenti is also an excellent sculptor. In this work, an effective ornament of the sepulchral monument Venturini, he portrays a child who gently descends the steps leading to the tomb. She holds a bouquet of flowers in her hands; she is kind and blessed with dignity. The classical immobility of a funeral monument is therefore contradicted by its slow but eternal pace, which corresponds to the evocation of an intimate family moment and the lightness of a tender age. It should be noted that above the figure stands an arch in Botticino marble on which we read the Latin inscription "Flos in aeternitate floruit", or "The flower blooms forever".
A dynamic sculpture
Remarkable is the dynamism of the work, which convincingly combines the symbolic value and the call of life, well represented by the beautiful hands of the child.
Monumento Nuvolari
Remarkable is the art that Enzo Nenci produced in his life. Technical mastery, contained patetism, effectiveness in the rendering of emotions are the characteristics of this author. He demonstrates these skills also in this beautiful bronze round of 1954, which also refers to the inscription "You will run even faster through the streets of heaven". The monument's first project, however, dates back to 1931. The flying Mantuan rests forever, portrayed as he drives his fireball with half-closed eyes but in a pilot's dress. It is thus surrounded by an aura of eternity, which emphasizes how the sports virtues are an inseparable part of his soul.
Monumento Ferrari-Bertoni
The Deposition in White Carrara marble is the work of the Mantuan painter and sculptor Aldo Bergonzoni, a figure close to Vindizio Nodari Pesenti and, later, to the artistic current of Lombard Chiarismo. The power of the image translates into the great figure of Christ surrounded by pious women and embraced by the character who bows his head in a sign of deep desperation. The lines of the faces are rendered with happy synthesis, while the body of the Savior seems progressively absorbed by the absolute white.
Ideato e promosso da / Founded and Promoted by: Mattia Palazzi (Sindaco del Comune di Mantova) con Lorenza Baroncelli (Assessore alla rigenerazione urbana e del territorio, marketing urbano, progetti e relazioni internazionali del Comune di Mantova) Coordinamento Scientifico / Scientific Coordinator: Sebastiano Sali Curatore testi e immagini / Superintendent texts and images: Giovanni Pasetti Foto di / Photo by: Art Camera Redazione / Editor: Erica Beccalossi Assistente / Assistant: Annica Boselli
