~
The Three Most Common Graveyard Motifs and their Meanings ~
The
three most popular of all the gravestone motifs were the Death's-Head, the Soul
Effigy or the Winged Cherub and the Urn and willow though countless other
exist. The following is an alphabetical list:
The Death's-Head
The
Elizabethan winged death's-head with its blank eyes and tooth-filled grin was
used from 1620 until around 1700, as in the Captain Edward Russell stone
(figure 1 below) found in Salem, Massachusetts, either by itself or with
secondary symbols like the hourglass, pick, scythe or crossbones as in the
Sarah Christophers stone (Figure 2 below) found in New London, Connecticut.
These symbols of mortality emphasizing the brevity of life and the awesome
power of death symbolically depict the soul's voyage through death. When used
with a vine piercing the skull it's representative of life in heaven.

Figure
1
Figure 2
The Soul Effigy
Around
1700 the grim death's-head began to soften and be transformed. By the 1750's
the death's-head was replaced by the winged cherub or soul effigy. The John
Crowninshield stone (figure 3 below) found in Salem, Massachusetts and the
Elizabeth Bartlett stone (figure 4 below) found in Plymouth, Massachusetts, both
show this softening transition. This symbolizes Man's immortal side, and is
suggesting themes of a heavenly reward after death rather than the fearsome
grimness of death. Along with the change from the grim death's-head to the soul
effigy the epitaphs also changed from "Here lies the body of..." to
things stressing the joy of resurrection.

Figure 3 Figure 4
The Urn and the Willow
By
the beginning of the nineteenth century more questioning intellectual sects
such as Unitarianism accompanied by a neoclassical revival in the arts yielded
to a new gravestone motif - the urn and the willow such as the Oliver Barber
stone (figure 5) found in South Canterbury, Connecticut and the Reverend Luther
Clark (figure 6) also found in South Canterbury, Connecticut. The urn contained
the remains of the deceased from which the soul arises to heaven and the willow
symbolizes the mourning for the earthly life and joy of the new celestial life.
Epitaphs again changed to read " In memory of..." or "Sacred to
the memory of..." avoiding any reference to death or eternity. Unfortunately
by the mid 1800's we find little else but this design until the art of
pictorial stone carving seemed to vanish altogether.

Figure 5 Figure 6
Background on Gravestones 
Gravestone
Motifs 
Gravestone Symbology
The Five Classes
of Gravestones 
Alphabetical
Listing of Gravestone Symbols

Light House Clock Stone 
Concord’s Sleepy
Hollow Cemetery

Salem’s Burying Point Cemetery


Dedication 
Links 
Home
Gravestones A New England Art Form © 1992-2007 D. A. Jacobs
Photography © 1992-2007
D.A. Jacobs all rights reserved


Let Us
Know What You Think ...
For other informational sites by Deejay goto:
All about learning to play musical instruments, and building drums
and
All about smoking food, good BBQ,
making cheeses and Brewing Beer