engleski

Funerary sculpture in Istria: animal and mythological figures

Paper deals with freestanding sculpture collected in the Archaeological museum of Istria as decoration of tombstones. During the research, author has confronted with problem how to distinguish funerary sculpture from sculpture intended for other purposes. Freestanding sculptures and sculptures in deep relief that could be related to funerary monuments with more or less probablity, were divided in several thematic groups: human figures, mythological figures and animals. Some of the most interesting sculptures represent mythological creatures: telamons, sphynxes, gryphons, Tritons, mourning young man in Oriental clothes. There arose the question if their role was always that of grave guardians ; as for the telamons, function in public architecture seems more convincing. The prominent place at list occupies group of lions, making the most numerous group of freestanding funerary sculpture in Istria.

funerary monuments ; Istria ; sculpture ; animal figure ; mythological figure

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