Recognition. Butti's 'Il Minatore', Cementerio Central, Montevideo, Uruguay
As it happened I was the only visitor to the truly fabulous, monumental Central Cemetery of Montevideo. It's well worth a look or two to get an impression of how Uruguay remembers her well-known people.
I didn't expect to recognise anything, but there he was. A miner - Il Minatore - whom I've seen in a cemetery in Düsseldorf. He was sculpted by Enrico Butti (1847-1932) of Milan, Italy, between 1887 and 1888 in at least two versions. There's the one in Germany which is sombre but again not more sombre than you'd expect for a burial ground; and there's this utterly dejected miner; just look at his sagging shoulders, his sad drawn face. I sat watching a while, and tears almost welled up.
Il Minatore here graces the family tomb of Juan and Daniel Nicola. Whom they were I don't know, and I haven't (yet) been able to find out. Daniel, presumably Juan's son, has a dedicatory plaque: "A Daniel Nicola. Amigo inolvidable. Sus compañeros de A.T.M.O.". And I don't even know for what that abbreviation stands. I suppose this is fitting, death is a mystery by all accounts.
Recognition. Butti's 'Il Minatore', Cementerio Central, Montevideo, Uruguay
As it happened I was the only visitor to the truly fabulous, monumental Central Cemetery of Montevideo. It's well worth a look or two to get an impression of how Uruguay remembers her well-known people.
I didn't expect to recognise anything, but there he was. A miner - Il Minatore - whom I've seen in a cemetery in Düsseldorf. He was sculpted by Enrico Butti (1847-1932) of Milan, Italy, between 1887 and 1888 in at least two versions. There's the one in Germany which is sombre but again not more sombre than you'd expect for a burial ground; and there's this utterly dejected miner; just look at his sagging shoulders, his sad drawn face. I sat watching a while, and tears almost welled up.
Il Minatore here graces the family tomb of Juan and Daniel Nicola. Whom they were I don't know, and I haven't (yet) been able to find out. Daniel, presumably Juan's son, has a dedicatory plaque: "A Daniel Nicola. Amigo inolvidable. Sus compañeros de A.T.M.O.". And I don't even know for what that abbreviation stands. I suppose this is fitting, death is a mystery by all accounts.