Mount Vernon Cemetery

Mount Vernon Cemetery

Gardel monument © George E. Thomas

Gardel monument

1856, John Notman. Ridge and W. Lehigh aves.

Within this cemetery is Philadelphia's most remarkable funeral monument, Napoleon LeBrun's Bertram Gardel monument designed c. 1862. Drawing on classical sources, it combines a pyramid as base against which stand marble figures carved by Guillaume Geefs (1805–1883), “statuary to the king of Belgium,” whose source was Benjamin West's Agripinna Landing at Brundisium with the Ashes of Germanicus, which in turn was based on the Augustan Ara Pacis reliefs. Allegorical figures complete the narrative, with Africa, Asia, and Europe joining America in mourning the subject's death.

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