Sospisio Bourbon del Monte Tomb

On a stone plinth stands the stele decorated with a female figure emerging from the marble. The woman is wrapped in a long robe with her hands crossed over her breast, her gaze turned upwards. The young woman is framed on either side by two female figures with their heads covered by a veil that is moved by invisible gusts of wind. They encircle the young figure with floral garlands and delicate flowers also populate the lower part of the monument. The monument rests on a plinth bordered by iron bars supported by pillars. A flower vase is positioned at the front.
The tomb was commissioned from the well-known sculptor from Lombardy Leonardo Bistolfi by Enrico Sospisio, an engineer from Piedmont and director of the Officina del Gas in Trieste, for his beloved daughter Elda, who died at a young age in August 1906. The figure freeing itself from the marble seems to reference the well-known Monument to Giovanni Segantini by the Lombard sculptor, in which the beauty that springs from the mountain is depicted. In the case of the Sant’Anna cemetery, the sculpture is meant to be a tribute to the young life that was cut short. Elda seems to be still alive as she turns her determined gaze towards the sky. The sinuous lines that characterise the work are clearly Art Nouveau, as are the floral decorations that adorn the slender figure. This burial may well have inspired Giovanni Mayer in the design of the Modugno Tomb, positioned under the arches: Mayer's figures have a definition of faces that mirrors the two lateral figures of the Sospisio Tomb.