Grigorescu, Felicia: Forme de artă în cimitire evreieşti din nord-vestul Romaniei (Satu Mare, 2013)
Glosar de termeni
diaspora, and they learnt and disseminated them. In these typologies we find the biblical architectural shapes: on one hand the most widely spread, the Temple command-shape, and on the other hand the command-shape of the first sign on a Jewish grave, the pole which Jacob is placing on Rachel's grave. 1. The temple typology (I. A.l.a) If for the synagogue, the emancipation encouraged the narrative character of the exterior architecture, this was more acute in the cemetery, especially by expressing without questions the origins of the ethnicity, through the evolution of the old shapes of tomb stones, towards pseudo-temple. In all the studied area, the shape of the tomb stone placed on a pedestal, bordered by two little columns with capitals and shaped cornice, upon which there is a pediment, is very common. The two main components of the tomb stone are, a pediment in the upper part, and in the lower part the body of the monument. Sometimes these are separated by other elements such as the cornice, or an overelevation by a connecting piece. The body of the stone is very often leaning against a prominent pedestal and is flanked by little columns. Around this shape type, lots of other varieties of subtypes have developed, born from the most uncommon associations of architectural elements, double, triple or multiple repetitions of pseudo-architectural decorative elements, inversions or original treatments of these, which will determine the eclecticism of the style, but primarily, they will give birth to a unique style: the Jewish eclecticism, which will find its specific ways of expression and development in an uncommon place, the cemetery. In the north-west of Romania, the pediment of the monument is the area destined primordially to the decoration, which is simple, and often formed from only one decorative element, either a Jewish religious symbol, or another decorative motif which is connected to the place of origin of the Jewish people, the social condition and the religious conscience of the deceased. In some cases, the decorative element is formed of the letters of the Jewish alphabet, representing short funerary formulas or even a psalm, which in the way of writing, take the upper part of the pediment. The area reserved for the decoration, does not usually exceed a third of the tomb stone, but it can even take less than a quarter of its space. The rest of the body is destined to the text of the epitaph. This can be placed within a frame and can contain various shapes, which are usually irregular, mentioning some information about the deceased. The pediment can be flanked by ornamental shapes of big or small dimensions, or bordered by multiple boxes, outlined, spiral, or jumping, which will generate other subtypes of monuments. The fantasy of associating these decorative elements gives this area, through the diversity of the shapes, a dynamic character. Some stones of this typology have between the pediment and the epitaph area a connecting space, which is usually rectangular, which can have or not, an inscription or a discreet horizontal decoration {Pic. 6). A spectacular shape of this type was identified in the old cemetery from the Velenţa neighbourhood from Oradea {Pic. 8). The separating element between the pediment and the body of the stone in this last case, is limited by two mirroring volutes, closer in the upper part and with a very large opening at the base, having a trapezoidal shape. In the centre of this connecting element there is a triangle embossed leaning against the short edge. In a group of three monuments of this type, one 115
