Between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, some symbolist and modernist elements came out gradually: young female figures replace the realistic forms or the social allegories, introducing themselves so as lay symbols of the pain, of the memory or of the tomb’s mystery. There is a link between the dissemination of these images and the dichotomy between death and youth, one of the main themes of the decadent and symbolist poetics which recurs at the beginning of the 20th century in Staglieno. The Remaggi Bargagliotti tomb, with the young woman sitting on a little sarcophagus, who symbolizes the mourning, witnesses the perpetuation of this trend. However, in this case, although this monument still shows some sensuality, its dramatic part prevails on the memory’s melancholy. The dramatic power of this monument is also accentuated by the light effects between the sculpture and the architectural structure which encloses it.
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