PICTURES FROM ITALY (Est. 2001)
  • Private Tours
    • Private Tours of Rome
    • Private Tours of Florence
    • Private Tours of Venice
  • Contact
  • Rome
  • Vatican
  • Florence
  • Venice
  • Tuscany
  • Gallery
  • Year in Art
Private Tours of Florence

The Island of the Dead

14/5/2019

 
Walking Tours of Florence
Tomb of Andrea di Mariano Casentini, English cemetery, Florence
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, English cemetery, Florence
Tomb of Andrea di Mariano Casentini
Statue of Juliet Savage Landor by Michele Auteri-Pomar, English Cemetery, Florence
Juliet Savage Landor by Michele Auteri-Pomar
Statue of Juliet Savage Landor by Michele Auteri-Pomar, English Cemetery, Florence
Juliet Savage Landor by Michele Auteri-Pomar

Comments are closed.

    Blogging about Florence:
    its art, history and culture.


    My name is David Lown and I am an art historian from Cambridge, England.

    Since 200I I have been living in Italy, where I run
    ​ private tours of Florence, Rome &
    Venice.


    Search Pictures From Italy:

    Blog Posts

    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018


Follow Pictures From Italy on Facebook

Private Tours of Rome, Florence & Venice

Copyright © David Lown 2001-2019. All Rights Reserved. 
  • Private Tours
    • Private Tours of Rome
    • Private Tours of Florence
    • Private Tours of Venice
  • Contact
  • Rome
  • Vatican
  • Florence
  • Venice
  • Tuscany
  • Gallery
  • Year in Art