Not far from the cartoonish Schmidt stump is another Schmidt’s stump, only slightly less cartoonish. The essence of the romantic style in cemetery monuments, Father Pitt has decided, is the peculiar combination of realism in details with unlikeliness in composition.
A very ornate, perhaps even confused, German romantic monument. The date of death is hard to read; Father Pitt reads it as 1882, but might read it as 1872 in a different light.
Some rustic stumps are so naturalistic that they are hard to distinguish at a distance from real tree stumps. Others look like they were drawn by Walt Disney in a slightly (but not very) gloomy mood. Those are Father Pitt’s favorites. Here is one of the most Disneyesque rustic stumps old Pa Pitt has ever seen. As anyone who has browsed this site knows, Father Pitt has a bit of a thing for rustic stumps (look in the index under “Stumps”); this one is near the top of his list.
By far the grandest monument in the cemetery, this one is surmounted by a figure pointing upward, like the traditional representations of Hope, except that there is no anchor. Instead, she holds a stem of lilies. Whatever she represents, she is a fine piece of sculpture, all the more surprising for being the only notable piece of sculpture in the whole cemetery.
