The Fountain of the Nations' Grief

The Fountain of the Nations' Grief is a war memorial erected on an artificial island outside the Venice harbour, in the realm of Earth Baroque. It was commissioned to commemorate soldiers lost in the many wars which have ebbed and flowed over the European continent in the last century without a specific link to individual battles or armies.   The French sculptor Phillipe Carpentier was responsible for the overall design, but a number of artists from the École de l'art formel de Lyon worked with him on the details. The fountain is supported by many individual human scale statues, depicted in various states of anguish, with tear ducts that weep into the pools that surround the central crowning pediment. Most of the figures are female and represent the mothers, wives, sweethearts and daughters of the dead.   When it was first unveiled to the public it provoked some controversy, particularly amongst conservative commentators who accused it of simultaneously disrespecting the honour of the soldiers of the Lega Latina and the Anglo-Franco Empire. It was said to be unnecessarily maudlin, to undermine the patriotism necessary to preserve the morale of the League and the Empire and by failing to show the glory of victory, to give undue emphasis to the emotion of defeat. Carpentier rejected all these criticisms, asserting that the emotions provoked by death in battle made no distinction between the wining and losing sides.   History has sided with the sculptor and now the Fountain of the Nations' Grief acts as the focal point for annual ceremonies of remembrance in which all are welcome.