Непозната кћи Стефана Првовенчаног

Abstract

Стефан Првовенчани је имао шесторо деце из три брака. На фресци опела његове треће супруге – краљице Ане – из сопоћанске унутрашње припрате, у првом плану, испред одра старе краљице, насликана је њена кћи непознатог имена, највероватније старија сестра ктитора Сопоћана, српског краља Стефана Уроша I. Опела савременика, сликана као зидни украс над њиховим гробовима, једна је од особености српске средњовековне уметности.

The opinion that Stefan married three times prevails in science. His first marriage with Eudokia, the niece of Byzantine emperor Isaac II Angelos, was concluded soon after the Battle of Morava, which took place in autumn 1190. Ten years later, by the end of 1201, the marriage was dissolved due to the infidelity of both spouses. The name and origin of Stefan’s second wife are not known. He got married for the third time in 1217 to Anna, the granddaughter of the then deceased doge of Venice Enrico Dandolo, and became king at the same time. Judging by the fresco of her funeral service in the narthex of the Sopoćani monastery, created around 1265, the queen outlived by more than three decades her husband, who died on 24 September 1227. The children born in these marriages and recorded in historical sources can be enumerated in the following order – the first-born daughter of unknown name; the oldest son and Stefan’s successor Radoslav, who was the Serbian king from 1227 to 1233; Vladislav, the Serbian king from 1234 to 1243; Predislav, who was tonsured as monk Sava and served as the bishop of Hum and head of the Serbian Church from 1263 until his death in 1271; and Uroš, the Serbian king from 1243 to 1276. Based on the fresco in Sopoćani, Stefan’s second daughter of unknownname should be added to this list of five children. In the first zone of the northern wall of the Sopoćani inner narthex, left to the door leading to the parekklesion of St Stephen, above the sarcophagus of the first Serbian queen of the Nemanjić dynasty, Anna, there is the fresco depicting her funeral service. Of the persons attending this event, it is possible to recognise without any doubt Anna’s son king Stefan Uroš I and his sons, Anna’s grandsons, Dragutin and Milutin, and behind them their mother queen Helena. The funeral rite was served by a local Rascian bishop, depicted beside the deathbed of the queen-mother. Courtiers and the nobility of the Serbian king are portrayed right to the royal family and the serving archpriest. The mysterious grown-up female figure kneeling before the deathbed of the queenmother and kissing her left hand has created most dilemmas in science. Such prominent place, in the foreground of the composition, certainly according to the wish of the patron, king Uroš, could be assigned only to his sister, probably the older one, i.e. the first-born child from Stefan’s third marriage, with Anna Dandolo. That Uroš had a sister is also indirectly testified by written historical sources, i.e. two charters of Hungarian kings which mention his brother-in-law. It should be borne in mind that the only daughter of king Uroš, Brnjača, never got married as she is depicted in each of the preserved Nemanjić family trees, up to Dečani, and it has been rightly ascertained in science, a long time ago, that married female members are not presented in them. It could be only the husband of his sister, unknown by name.