Tombstones

The tombstones may be made of limestone, gritstone, marble or granite; they are trapezoidal or rectangular, and their various forms of relief show geometrical and symbolic motifs, with phitomorphic and zoomorphic stylisations, with scenes from the Bible or the life of saints or of the deceased. Sometimes, though not so often in Romania, the deceased are presented in the well-known lying position of gisants on top of the tombstone. The tombstones are usually carved with inscriptions on the border or in the centre, cut in champleve.

As in other parts of the world, the art of tombstones enjoyed a period of flourishing in the Romanian Principalities in the Middle Ages. In Moldavia, the oldest works of this kind, in Gothic style, which came down to us, are from the former half of the 15th century.

The unprecedented development in the art of Moldavian tombstones in the latter half of the 15th century, during the reign of Stephen the Great, led to the setting-up of a true local school for craftsmen, with specific features and with a large collection of decorations, almost exclusively vegetal and geometrical stylisations, with very few zoomorphic, and never antropomorphic, motifs. The prevailing element of these decorations is the meander-like stem bearing palmettes and semi palmettes, which were widespread motifs in ancient Egypt and Greece, in the Christian East and the Byzantine world. It is an element taken over in an original and unitary synthesis by the frescoes, embroideries and illuminated manuscripts of 15th and 16th century Moldavia.


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