Animal Symbols in Istanbul Christian Cemeteries

Abstract

The monumental conspicuous grave steles with sculptures and carvings are made like social and religious buildings along with the social rights and property acquiring right given to non-Muslims in 19th century. These monuments present the reflections of the social wishes and needs of the families, skills of the craftsmen, the emergence of the monumental sculpture artisans as an occupation in this century, the iconographic demands of the sects and grave steles and sculptures seen in Europe in the same century. Symbols such as the portrait of the dead, angel, child, woman and religious stories were used in the statues and reliefs in the Christian tombs in Istanbul since the second half of the 19th century. Those symbols might both directly reflect Christian belief and are mostly related to life, death and resurrection. Animal, mortality, flower, plant and tree motifs were also crafted in the symbols. In addition to such motifs, many different descriptions including reliefs about with Christian traditions, mason symbols, world and sky symbols, religious objects and garments decorate the grave monuments. In this article, the focus is on the animal symbols and iconographies depicted on the grave monuments. While dealing with the iconographic meanings of the symbols, mostly their meanings related to mortality and Christianity were discussed and the other meanings were ignored.