Grigorescu, Felicia: Forme de artă în cimitire evreieşti din nord-vestul Romaniei (Satu Mare, 2013)
Glosar de termeni
The hypostases in appears in are positive, veiled in grandeur, in praise, as a reference point for the land of Israel: I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down his roots; 6 his young shoots will grow. His splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon 45. It also appears as a symbol of hope, of a secured future for the children: your children [shall be] like olive plants round about your table145 146 In the sculpted representations of the olive tree’s branches, one can notice small oval leaves on the bar, which are slightly sharpened at the edge, set pairwise; what differentiates them from other representations is the bud. It is laid under the spot where the leaves start, and is represented as a little round hole on the bar147 148. In the orthodox Jewish cemetery in Satu Mare, several tombstones were found on which the decorum is an olive tree branch represented in a naturalistic manner, but also a composition in which two branches are opposed obliquely, with five leaves, like the sign on the blessing of the Cohens {Pic. 72). The pomegranate. The motif of this fruit - almost an element of decorum per se - is frequent wherever the question of the balancing of the decorum or of the completion of the ornament’s composition is raised. It is an element presented in the Bible precisely with this function. In the architectonic ornamentation it has an unequivocal description: And he made pomegranates, namely two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the capitals that were upon the top of the pillars . Even more obvious is the ornamental destination for a fabric: And they made upon the hems of the robe pomegranates of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and twined linen', And they made bells of pure gold, and put the bells between the pomegranates upon the hem of the robe, round about between the pomegranates; A bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate, round about the hem of the robe to minister in; as the LORD commanded Moses'49 150. The fruit can be found represented naturalistically on tombstones and in some identified compositions (Pic. 73). The fig. Dual symbol for good and evil, the fig is a source of parables for the Bible. It appears both as a good and as an evil fruit. The representations of its extremes can appear together: two baskets of figs... One basket had very good figs, like those that ripen early; the other basket had very bad figs, so bad they could not be eaten5<), or separated, as individual exemplifications: my sweetness, and my good fruit151 152 face to face with: and will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil'52. 145 Ibidem, Hosea 14: 5-6 146 Ibidem, Psalms 128: 3 147 Cynthia Crewe, Plant motifs..., p. 12 148 The Bible, I Kings, 7: 18-20 144 Ibidem, Exodus 39: 24-26 150 Ibidem, Jeremiah 24: 1-2 151 Ibidem, Judges 9: 11 152 Ibidem, Jeremiah 29: 17 137
