Creative Ties to Western European Art

Abstract

Throughout the entire medieval period, influences of both spheres of the Christian oikoumene met and intertwined in Serbian medieval art. It was this more or less pronounced quest for a balance between the two artistic influences that represented the distinctive feature that constituted the basis for the identity of a number of notable Serbian medieval churches. Serbian medieval culture turned to its advantage the unenviable geo-cultural context in which it developed – a context marked by clashes and ‘cohabitation’of Byzantine influences and influences from powerful Western states, ranging from the overseas Angevin Empire and other independent states to the fringes the Holy Roman Empire. This allowed Serbian monuments to acquire a distinct, unique identity within the fragmented Balkan world, as an original expression of the views and needs of the milieu for which they were created. A model example of this is the church of the Monastery of Studenica, the famous foundation of Stefan Nemanja (r. 1166–1196), the progenitor of the holy Nemanjić dynasty. This church, with its clear architectural form and balanced volumes, is characterized by its facades set in carefully dressed marble blocks and decorated with elegant sculpted decoration in the Romanesque style. Paradoxically, if there were no dome indicating its links to the Byzantine world, it would be difficult to infer that its interior was intended for Orthodox service and adorned with ‘Byzantine’ frescoes of exquisite beauty. It was precisely Nemanja’s mausoleum that served as the model for the three monumental royal burial churches erected in Kosovo and Metohija in the 14th century, namely Banjska of King Milutin (r. 1281–1321), Dečani of Stefan Uroš III (r. 1321–1331) and the Holy Archangels near Prizren of King and Emperor Dušan (r. 1331–1355). The Banjska church, dedicated to Saint Stephen as the patron saint of the Nemanjić dynasty and modeled upon Studenica in accordance with the express wishes of its ktetor, was set in multi-colored ashlars cut from locally sourced stone and decorated with Romanesque architectural sculpture. Like the carvers at Dečani after them, the Banjska stone carvers studied the sculpted decoration of Studenica, as clearly evidenced by its surviving fragments. Elements of Romano-Gothic architecture and coastal Adriatic sculpted decoration are most prominent in the monumental Church of the Pantokrator of the Monastery of Dečani, an edi fice with a five-nave naos surmounted by a slim dome and with a three-nave narthex. Its facades, set in alternating bi-colored stone blocks, are adorned with sculpted ornaments greatly superior to that of the model church both in terms of volume and iconography. The katholikon of the Monastery of the Holy Archangels near Prizren, the monumental mausoleum of Emperor Dušan, rivaled Dečani as an exceptionally important monument that bore witness to the meticulous attention paid to the Latin West’s language of art in Serbian architecture in Kosovo and Metohija. The loss of this exceptional monument is most regrettable. The Church of the Holy Archangels was an amalgamation of Byzantine spatial organization with an augmented cross-in-square plan, five domes and an open narthex surmounted by a blind calotte at the western end. Its facades were set in marble and opulently decorated with Romano-Gothic architectural sculpture. Their articulation was effected with string-courses, which were used for the first time in Serbia, and lesenes. The tomb of Emperor Dušan is a distinctive Serbian medieval sepulchral monument, framed with a unique architectural structure. The tomb itself was covered with a slab of white marble featuring a life-sized recumbent effigy of the emperor, executed in high relief, fully modeled after royal tombs found in the Catholic world. The gisant, a type of tomb effigy of French origin, probably made its way to Serbia from Italy, by way of Venice, Rome or the Kingdom of Naples. Similar monuments were found in the cities on the eastern Adriatic coast, whence also came the craftsmen who worked on the Church of the Holy Archangels. The famous floor of the Prizren church has also been completely destroyed, with the exception of a few small fragments. Crafted using the technique of marble incrustations on stone bedding, the floor reveals and highlights the ktetor’s unambiguous intention to achieve ‘visual’ prestige. In the 1130s, an ornate marble floor with figural decorations was executed in the southern church of the Constantinopolitan Monastery of the Pantokrator. This floor may have represented a precursor of similar creations in the ‘Byzantinized’ Sicilian churches in Palermo and Monreale and in later edifices in Campania and, ultimately, in Prizren as well. It is this similarity between physically distant examples that represents yet another testimony to the mutual links between artistic creations from the two spheres of the Christian oikoumene. The artists responsible for the erection of these churches came to Serbia’s hinterlands from the eastern coast of the Adriatic and were familiar with the process of combining facades in the Romanesque and Romano-Gothic spirit with the Byzantine spatial organization and decorative program. These Romanesque and Romano-Gothic builders arrived in Serbia predominantly from Kotor and Dubrovnik, cities with a long tradition of ties with the Apennine Adriatic coast, whence new stylistic trends came to the eastern coast, primarily owing to monastic orders, first the Benedictines and then the Franciscans and Dominicans. It was a Franciscan monk from Kotor named Fra Vita who was the master builder of Dečani. The influence of these builders was reflected both generally in the works they produced, whether they were architectural or sculptural ensembles such as the said mausoleums, and in the workmanship of individual elements. The episcopal Church of the Theotokos of Hvosno, built in the 1230s, received the charac teristic rectangular apse; the foundations of the highest-ranking prelates in the Patriarchate of Peć received Romano-Gothic windows and parts of portals and iconostases; and the small Church of St. Peter in Unjemir received Gothic column bases and capitals, produced by stone carvers from Kotor. Of no lesser significance was the presence of Catholic colonies, predominantly from Kotor and Dubrovnik, but also of Saxon miners, in important mining and economic centers in Kosovo, such as Stari Trg and Novo Brdo. They erected their places of worship following the dominant traditions of their homelands. Thus the remains of a monumental Catholic church at Stari Trg, built in the late 13th century, demonstrate that this three-nave basilica, probably with a dome and with Gothic elements, was built on the model of the Kotor cathedral church, whose bishop had jurisdiction over the Catholic parishes in Serbia; the model for the unusual floor plan of the ‘Saxon’ Church at Novo Brdo, built around 1330, has been sought both in the monastic architecture of mendicant orders and in older German architecture. The unique synthesis of Western and Eastern solutions achieved in the Prizren Church of the Holy Archangels served as the model for the construction of the Orthodox cathedral church at Novo Brdo. Built in the second half of the 14th century, this edifice replicated the model of a church with an augmented cross-in-square plan and facades set in rows of bi-colored ashlars. The church was decorated in low relief in sandstone, which was highly characteristic of the Morava-style architectural sculpture in the time of Prince Lazar. Some Romano-Gothic elements also found their way to the Serbian Despotate, which saw the last upswing of Serbian medieval art under Despot Stefan Lazarević. In the long period from Stefan Nemanja to Dušan and subsequent rulers, subtle ties linked the monuments erected in the territory of medieval Serbia, including those in Kosovo and Metohija, with the Dalmatian and Apennine coasts of the Adriatic. Drawing, from inside the Orthodox oikoumene, on the heritage of Western art, Serbian rulers and archbishops were able to imbue their grand churches with a distinctive artistic identity as an expression of their own faith and power, which still leaves a strong impression on believers and visitors. The cultural idiosyncrasy of Studenica, Sopoćani, Gradac, Banjska and Dečani was thus juxtaposed with the creative identity of an artistic colossus such as Byzantium, achieving an aesthetic balance between the uniqueness of Raška-style architecture (and sculpted decoration) and the reception of Byzantine visual theology, cleverly transformed to suit its own needs. In the 15th century, the identity of Serbian art assumed new features and opened room for a new upsurge, the one that took place in Moravan Serbia. Nevertheless, it was in the 13th and 14th century that, owing to initiatives of rulers and prelates (in primis to the ideological synergy between King Milutin and Archbishop Danilo II) that the territory of the Serbian Kingdom and later Empire occupied a prominent place on the artistic map of Christian Europe.