What is this statue at the Hollywood Forever cemetary?

April 3, 2004 11:15 AM

Is there a sculpture of a "winged man sexually assaulting a woman" at the Hollywood Forever cemetary? [More inside]

I was reading Expiration Date by Tim Powers, and towards the end noticed this:

Even before they parked Bradshaw's goofy car, while they were still hardly past the office, they saw semi-transparent figures clustered around the big white sculpture of a winged man sexually assaulting a woman. The smoky figures might have been attempting to stop the man, or help him subdue him, or just conceal the atrocity from the street.

The book's account of hollywood seems meticulously researched, so I would have to guess that the statue isn't entirely invented. I can find lots of pictures of the cemetery online, here, for instance, but I can't find a picture or description of whatever he's referring to here.

posted by mragreeable to media & arts (13 comments total)

maybe they mean this (at the top of the page)?
posted by amberglow at 11:42 AM on April 3, 2004

It's probably some version of Eros and Psyche, but it definitely wouldn't be an assault. (Story here.)
posted by taz at 12:23 PM on April 3, 2004

Actually, if she is laying down, helpless, and he is poised over her, it would be a depiction of the scene where Eros revives Psyche from a death-like sleep, after which he brings her to heaven where they live foreverly ever after, so in some ways it might be fitting for a cemetery.
posted by taz at 12:29 PM on April 3, 2004

There is also Leda, who was raped by Zeus in the form of a swan. This was immortalized in poetry by Yeats:

A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By his dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.

and used, somewhat later, by O'Hara (as a metaphor for the cinema!):

We our-
selves appear naked
spread-eagled while
the machine wings
nearer.

Don't know anything specifically about a statue, though.
posted by rafter at 12:42 PM on April 3, 2004

actually, what was this cemetery called in the past? (it couldn't have always been named "hollywood forever") It may help in finding it.
posted by amberglow at 1:22 PM on April 3, 2004

actually, what was this cemetery called in the past? (it couldn't have always been named "hollywood forever") It may help in finding it.

While trying to answer that very question, I stumbled upon this page of photographs (some of which are just striking) and noticed this:


I suppose there's a chance that's what he's referring to. It's a big, winged white statue and there certainly seems to be something sexual going on there, though it looks pretty consensual to me. Calling that an "atrocity" would be applying quite a lot of poetic license...

Probably the reason I didn't find it earlier is that he misspelled "cemetery," which I did on the FPP as well, but didn't on my original googling.

(And to answer your question, I agree that "Hollywood Forever" seems like an improbably thing for it to have been named back in the late 1800s, but I can't find the original name if that's not it.)
posted by mragreeable at 1:36 PM on April 3, 2004

i think you found it, mragreeable : >
posted by amberglow at 1:54 PM on April 3, 2004

It's probably some version of Eros and Psyche, but it definitely wouldn't be an assault.

Taz, I have a wonderful print ("Visages," 1985, pub'ed by Editions du Desastre) of a photo of that sculpture by Keiichi Tahara (it's to the left of my computer as I speak), yet I've never bothered to look up the actual statue. Serendipity! Thanks!
(Looks a bit like a Bernini.)
posted by Shane at 2:34 PM on April 3, 2004

The Ecstasy of St. Teresa, by Bernini, perhaps.
posted by abcde at 2:41 PM on April 3, 2004

Amberglow... you were the one who found it. The same statue is in your link, down a few rows. I figured this thread would be dead after your post (!!!).
posted by banished at 7:58 PM on April 3, 2004

oh (and it was called Hollywood Memorial Park, I guess) : >
posted by amberglow at 8:23 PM on April 3, 2004

Amberglow... you were the one who found it. The same statue is in your link, down a few rows. I figured this thread would be dead after your post (!!!).

Wow, you're right. I scrolled through that page for a bit, saw a giant back tattoo of Azrael and a purported 25 year old cat and I sort of lost my ability to take the whole thing seriously. Looking again, that's the statue, clearly.

It still leaves the question as to whether that's the one that Powers is talking about, but at this point I'm assuming it is.

Good eye, Amberglow.
posted by mragreeable at 8:32 PM on April 3, 2004

Good eye, Amberglow.
eh, not really--i thought it was the one on top. I'm sure that's it tho, and the author was taking dramatic license. It is weird to see amorous stuff marking a grave.
posted by amberglow at 9:19 PM on April 3, 2004