 The Allegory of Death (Allegoria della Morte) What came to be known as the English Cemetery (Cimitero degli Inglesi), was built outside the northern gate, the Porta a Pinti, in 1828. When the gate and most of the medieval walls were pulled down in the 1860s, to be replaced by the viali (wide avenues), the cemetery became, in effect, a small island. The locals were not slow to name it the isola dei morti (island of the dead). One of the most striking sculptures in the English Cemetery marks the grave of Andrea di Mariano Casentini (1853-70), who was only sixteen years old when he died. The Allegoria della Morte (Allegory of Death), which takes the form of a blindfolded skeleton taking a scythe to a cluster of flowers, was conceived by Andrea's father and carved by Giuseppe Lazzerini (1831-95). The elaborately detailed statue of Julia Savage Landor mourning the death of her son, Arnold, is the work of the Sicilian sculptor Michele Auteri-Pomar (1838-1918). Arnold was the son of the English writer and poet, Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864), who is also buried in the cemetery. The most famous person to be interred in the English cemetery is the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who died in Florence in 1861.  Tomb of Andrea di Mariano Casentini  Juliet Savage Landor by Michele Auteri-Pomar  Juliet Savage Landor by Michele Auteri-Pomar Comments are closed.
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