Grigorescu, Felicia: Forme de artă în cimitire evreieşti din nord-vestul Romaniei (Satu Mare, 2013)
Glosar de termeni
the Tribe of Judah, whose symbol it used to be. It is also associated with the Judaic names Leib, Yehudah-Leib and Yehudah161. The lion was identified in the fronton of the gravestones from the urban cemeteries from Sighetu Marmaţiei and from Carei. Among the rural cemeteries, it appears most frequently in the beautiful cemetery of Săpânţa. It usually appears in opposed pairs, in rampant position, sometimes holding an object (image 90). Also, we could identify cases in which the lion appears alone at the basis reserved to decorum (Pic. 79). The realization is naturalistic, emphasizing specific anatomical elements: the thickness of the mane, the tufts on the end of the tail, the slender lower part of the body. The lion also appears in the Bible as a symbol of obedience: He couched, he IA 9 lay down as a lion, and as a great lion . 5. Decorative geometrical shapes An enormous number of such decorative elements contribute to the visual spectacle of the Judaic eclecticism. In the cemetery, these decorative elements appear more frequently at the borders of the epitaphs, or in connection to the symbol in the fronton. The circle appears most frequently, or three concentric circles, the square, the triangle or small compositions of geometric elements. 6. Compositions In the selected area for the study, the complex compositions are rare. In the old cemetery from Oradea, on a large gravestone, a military bonnet appears whose model with a bill and three buttons can be distinguished, as well as a dagger, a belt and the tuft of a chevron; ivy, with leaves naturalistically in relief, is bent over all (Pic. 80). Other examples are a lot simpler, as for instance some birds on a branch with leaves and sometimes with fruit and a composition with a deer next to a simple construction. Also, a representation with two doves which hold the ends of a coronal in their peckers was identified on a fragment of branch. Perambulating on all the paths of the cemeteries, one can find these solitary exceptions among the predominant majority of gravestones that display a single object on the fronton. These scenes are usually composed in order to make a more or less metaphorical reference to the diverse events or moral qualities of the deceased. But the frequency of these compositions is much reduced in the studied area. 7. Anthropomorphic elements The human portrait. Remarkably frequent in the Christian cemeteries, we might expect the portraits and the bust to be absent in the Jewish cemeteries, taking the restriction of the graven images or likenesses into consideration. In the Neologic Cemetery from Oradea, there is a group made of two rectangular stones of white marble, whose base show three flower vases and three horizontal blocks in front of them. In their * 162 101 Ibidem.... p. 55 162 The Bible, Numbers 24: 9 140
