Gravestone Depicting Baby Angel

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This tomb dramatically depicts a dying baby angel. A upside-down torch clutched in his right hand signifies the end of life. The angel's gaze is upward towards the light, adding to the sculpture's sense of drama. Founded in 1932, the State Museum of City Sculptures focuses on studying, restoring and protecting city sculptures and gravestones, with the museum responsible for maintaining many of St Petersburg's most famous sculptures. Several museum branches are located throughout St Petersburg, with the main ones situated within the former Aleksandro-Nevsky Lavra territory that was donated to the museum at its founding. The Tikhvinskoe Cemetery in Aleksandro-Nevsky Lavra was established in 1823 and named after the Our Lady of Tikhvin Church built between 1869 and 1873. The church closed in 1931, and the cemetery became a State Museum of City Sculptures branch, known as the Necropolis of Masters of Culture, in 1932. This designation is due to many leading figures of Russian culture being laid to rest here, including writers Fyodor Dostoevsky, Nikolai Karamzin, and Ivan Krylov; composers Aleksandr Borodin, Mikhail Glinka, Modest Musorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Pyotr Tchaikovsky; and artists Boris Kustodiev, Ivan Kramskoy, and Ivan Shishkin.