Grigorescu, Felicia: Forme de artă în cimitire evreieşti din nord-vestul Romaniei (Satu Mare, 2013)
Glosar de termeni
One of the shapes that can be found appears as a single decorative element under the name of the deceased, oblique, with quite a long tail, as a metaphor of the noble profession of writing. Weapons. It seems unusual for the people of the Book to have this motif in the repertoire of their funeral ornaments, as it is known that the Jews, who have been in a historical statute of Diaspora over the past two millenniums, did not have wars of their own. But, as good citizens of their host countries164 they participated at the wars held by the countries that hosted them. The death during those events generated ornamental motifs connected to the war: a cannon with upwardly raised barrels, a military bonnet, a dagger or a military gallon are all elements identified in the cemeteries of Oradea (Pic. 83). Tassels, ribbons. Beside the elements evidenced in the previous groups, this smaller group must also be mentioned; it rather contributes to defining others, on order to emphasize their importance. They seem to play an accessory role in contrast to the ones on the front line, and, still, through their strictly decorative function, they contribute to the emphasis upon the details that shall define the main element. Among them, we will name the ribbons, the ties, tassels or laces. We considered their mention necessary, because several descriptions of all kind are encountered: And nets of checker work, and wreaths of chain work, for the chapiters which were upon the top of the pillars'6\ And I chose this quotation, in order to end a demonstration of the attitude of the Book of Books, the Bible, towards the ornament, towards the Judaic eclecticism, whose features 1 tried to highlight over the course of this paper, towards art in general. III.B.2. The Epitaph The epitaph166 has been a present element on the tombstone ever since the last period of the roman Republic167, and it has undertaken various transformations along the time. On the Jewish tombstone, the epitaph includes besides the important personal data an eulogy of faith, creed and piousness of the deceased, this being considered the utmost victory in the life of a Jew. The epitaph has various forms in the Jewish cemeteries. The most frequent is written in the Jewish language and the tombstone oriented to the east. The funerary monuments of the 19th century and of the first half of the 20lh century from the Jewish cemeteries in the area of study have the epitaphs written in Hebrew and some are bilingual - in Hebrew on one side and in Hungarian on the other side. This bilingual writing is common to a very large area in central and east Europe, and according to the area of their location they can also be found in Jewish and German, Jewish and Russian, the option being part of the ethnic group’s wish to be Jewish citizens after emancipation, an act of loyalty towards the adopting nation. 164 S. A. Lerner, Narrating..., p. 7 165 Bible , I Kings, 7: 17 166 The origins of naming the funerary inscription is found in the name of the ceremony which took place in the honour of the Greek heroes during the Persan wars, in the 5th century B.C., „Epitaphia” and „Epitaphos logos” a funeral speech said by a political personality to the honour of the Athenians fallen in the battles, the first such speech being uttered after a great defeat in Tracia. 167 On the funerary monuments of that period, there were the half-lenght portrait and a quite detailed presentation of the deceased. 142
