The carved decoration on Jewish gravestones in Eastern Europe (and elsewhere) is often highly elaborate, combining religious iconography with folk art.
Dr. Heidi M. Szpek, Professor Emerita, Central Washington University, has written extensively about the Bagnowka Jewish cemetery in Bialystok, Poland — and her latest article, In The Jewish Magazine, is a fascinating analysis of the folk art carving on some of the matzevot that remain there..
The lengthy, highly detailed article focuses on the depiction of lions on gravestones in the cemetery — and she illustrates her discussion with photographs of the stones she discusses. She writes of the symbolic meaning of the Lion, but also analyzes style of carving, the pose of the animal as depicted, and other elements of the carvings.
The Lion of Judah, she writes, constitutes the most prolific symbol at Bagnowka, “save the Star of David and the candle.”
This majestic creature, which owes its origin in Jewish tradition to the tribe of Judahs blessing as Judah is the lions whelp (Genesis 49:9), became symbolic of all Israel and, in general, represents power. At Bagnowka, the lion appears on nearly 90 tombstones, at times, in a reclined posture; occasionally on the prowl. Most frequently, however, the lion appears in an upright or standing posture, perhaps influenced by the protective stance of the lions on the stairs of and beside the Solomonic altar (II Chron. 9:18-19). Not uncommon, two lions (or occasionally a lion and a deer) also take a heraldic stance, flanking a variety of center symbols. In this scenario, the two animals create an image-name association for the deceased or his father: the lion indicates Ari; the deer Tsvi.
Folk art need not offer every detail of its real-life counterpart that is the nature of folk art, where simplicity and generality of forms, cleansed of secondary or accidental influences mark the artists style. Among the Bagnowkas lions, we see this simplicity and generality of forms, the execution of which is not uniform throughout the history of this cemetery. Consider four of the nearly 90 extant improvisations of the lion, defending the Torah, depicted as a scholars books, all dating to c. 1900 1910. In the first two examples (Images 3 and 4), an upright lion is juxtaposed against books; each lions tail is curved upwards (though the tail tips are not identical!), with individual toes delineated. In the first, the lions tongue is extended, a typical detail; in the second, it is oddly absent. Yet, in the second, the artist precisely delineated the lions chest, allowing one hind leg to appear clearly behind the other. The lions eyes, noses and abdominal muscles are each suggested by the slightest of engraving strokes. The eyes are not identical. Each mane, too, is distinct in its execution, as each artist attempts to depict the lions thick plait. Beneath each lion, a single leaf is depicted, perhaps suggestive of life cut short or merely ornamental. Though the overall compositions are parallel in arrangement, attention to their details forces us to acknowledge these improvisations are quite distinct!
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