Angel of Grief

Victorian funerary sculpture at Rome's Protestant Cemetery, carved by W.W. Story in 1894 for his wife's grave — one of the most imitated cemetery works of its era.

The Angel of Grief is a funerary sculpture carved by William Wetmore Story in 1894 for the grave of his wife Emelyn at the Protestant Cemetery in Rome — where he himself would be buried the following year. Its full title, The Angel of Grief Weeping Over the Dismantled Altar of Life, describes what you see: a winged figure collapsed in sorrow over a crumbling altar. The work became so widely imitated that it is considered one of the most-copied cemetery sculptures of the 19th century. Today, it draws visitors to the serene non-Catholic cemetery nestled beside Rome's ancient Pyramid of Cestius.