We'd like to use analytics cookies to understand which symbols people look up, so we know what to research next. They are not used for advertising and we set none of them unless you say yes. What we store.
A torch carved pointing downward, sometimes still alight.
Also known as: Reversed torch, Extinguished torch, Upside down torch on a grave
A torch turned upside down. Whether the flame is shown still burning matters: an extinguished torch reads as life ended, and a torch inverted but still alight is conventionally read as life continuing beyond death. The distinction is one of the few in this vocabulary that is genuinely load-bearing.
A torch carved pointing downward, a classical motif of death adopted into monumental sculpture from Greek and Roman funerary art.
Classical antiquity, revived from the 18th century · Contexts: History
Conventionally distinguished by its flame: inverted and extinguished for a life ended, inverted but still burning for a life or soul continuing. The distinction is consistently reported and is visible on the stone, which makes it more useful than most claimed motif meanings.
Consistently reported in the literature; individual carvers were not necessarily consistent.
Part of the neoclassical revival vocabulary that reached monuments in the later eighteenth century along with the urn, the broken column and the draped cloth.
From the later 18th century
A torch carved with its handle uppermost and its head pointing down, the flame either shown as a curved plume or absent.
Both belong to the vocabulary of mortality motifs used on monuments.
Both entered monumental sculpture with the neoclassical revival.