Сербское искусство: от древности до византийского наследия

Serbian art refers to the visual arts of the Serbs and their nation state Serbia. The medieval heritage includes Byzantine art, preserved in architecture, frescos and icons of the many Serbian Orthodox monasteries. In the early modern period, Serbian visual arts began to be influenced by Western art, culminating in the Habsburg monarchy in the late 18th century. The beginning of modern Serbian art is placed in the 19th century. Many Serbian monuments and works of art have been lost forever due to various wars and peacetime marginalizations.

Currently, Europe's oldest known civilization was discovered in Serbia, namely Lepenski Vir and Vinča culture. In Serbia, Archaeological Sites of Exceptional Importance (Serbia) are numerous and have the highest level of state protection under the Law on Cultural Heritage. See: Prehistoric sites in Serbia and Prehistory of Southeastern Europe for artifacts and sculpture found at the archeological sites of Lepenski Vir.

Geographically Serbia was always part of the Roman Empire whether it was ruled from Rome or from Byzantium. The Roman ruins are found throughout the Balkan Peninsula.

We know little of the lives of the painters, craftsmen (engravers, goldsmiths, woodcarvers), builder/architects of medieval Serbia, of their studies, their schools, and their commissions. Slowly, however, we're beginning to learn. But in the course of centuries experience in painting frescoes, miniatures, icons and the iconostasis, there undoubtedly arose arts and crafts workshops where a younger generation of painters and skilled craftsmen could learn the techniques of the masters. Church architecture developed under the patronage of the medieval Serbian state. The most distinctive piece of medieval Serbian architecture was the Studenica monastery founded by Stefan Nemanja, the founder of medieval Serbia ca. 1190. This monastery also featured significant works of art including its Byzantine style fresco paintings. Its church also features extensive sculptures based on Psalms and the Dormition of the Theotokos. UNESCO added this monastery to its list of World Cultural Heritage sites in 1986. It was the model for other monasteries at Mileševa, Sopoćani and the Visoki Dečani. The influence of Byzantine art became more influential after the capture of Constantinople in 1204 in the Fourth Crusade when many Greek artists fled to Serbia. Their influence can be seen at the Church of the Ascension at Mileševa as well as in the wall paintings at the Church of the Holy Apostles at Peć and at the Sopoćani Monastery. Icons and frescoes also formed a significant part of church art. At that time in Raška, Stefan Vladislav who founded at Mileševa a monastery and a church where three of his court painters Demetrius, George and Theodore worked on wall painting free from the strict canon law tradition. The influence of Byzantine architecture reached its peak after 1300 including the rebuilding of the Our Lady of Ljeviš (ca. 1306–1307) and St. George at Staro Nagoričane as well as the Gračanica monastery. Church decorative paintings and religious arts and crafts also developed further in the period. The most noteworthy painters at the time were Michael Astrapas and Eutychios (fl. 1294 1317) and before them, Deacon Jovan and Rufin. Icon of the Holy Virgin Pelagonitissa, dating from 1421, is considered one of the last outstanding achievements of icon painting, a representation of the then still living Byzantine iconography. Its author Makarije Zograf worked on the icon in the Church of Transfiguration in the monastery of the village Zrze, near Prilep, and many other Serbian monasteries during the fifteenth century. Makarije Zograf and his brother Metropolitan Jovan Zograf cared for the monastery endowment until it was transferred to Constantine, the village head (kmet). The Visoki Dečani monastery in Metohija was built between 1330 and 1350. Unlike other Serbian monasteries of the period, it was built with Romanesque features by master builders under the monk Vitus of Kotor. Its frescoes feature 1000 portraits portraying all of the major themes of the New Testament. The cathedral features iconostasis, hegumen's throne and carved royal sarcophagus. In 2004, UNESCO listed the Dečani Monastery on the World Heritage List. There was a further spate of church building as the Serbian state contracted to the Morava basin in the late 14th century. Prince Stefan Lazarević was a poet and patron of the arts who founded the church at Resava at Morava with the wall paintings having a theme of parables of Christ with the people portrayed wearing feudal Serbian costumes. Manuscripts were another significant feature of Serbian medieval art. Miroslav's Gospel features lavish calligraphy and miniatures and is a significant artwork as well as a notable work of literature. The Chludov Psalter dating from the 14th century is beautifully decorated and was probably owned by a high ranking noble. Serbian princes were well known in the 15th century for supporting manuscripts employing scribes and artists to create manuscripts besides icons and frescoes. Lovro Dobričević (1420 1478) of Kotor was a Venetian painter of Serbian origin, though Roman Catholic by confession, who first started to paint in the Serbian Orthodox Savina Monastery in Zeta and Serbian Despotate (now Montenegro) in the mid 15th century. Later in 19th century, Serbian medieval art was used as inspiration for notable architect Andrey Damyanov who, between 1835 and 1878, along the Vardar and Morava Valleys and Bosnia, built around 40 churches and other buildings. Adapting to the social demand of its Serbian sponsors, Damyanov combined simultaneously traditional elements of the 15th century Morava school with Occidental baroque elements found North of Sava river. along with Serbian American scientist Michael Pupin, who gathered an international team of scholars and public figures to support the preservation of architectural heritage during and after the Great War. In 1918, Sir Thomas Graham Jackson, in Pupin's "Serbian Orthodox Church" on the medieval Serbian churches, refuted the notion that Serbian art was nothing more than a branch of Byzantine art and showed that Serbian art had an original character of its own. A large number of artistically worthy icons was made in this period.

The Ottoman conquest of Serbia during the 15th century had a negative impact on the visual arts. The Serbs became part of the Rum Millet (Christian community), and were regarded as a lower class (rayah). The Serbian nobility was not integrated into the Ottoman state system, and the Ottoman government abolished the church. As the nobility and church were the main sources of patronage for architects and artists, the early modern period is considered an artistically less productive period in Serbian art. Despite the general trend, notable monuments were built. There was some resumption of artistic endeavor after the restoration of the Serbian Patriarchate in 1557. Zograf Longin (1530 1600) and Georgije Mitrofanović were the leading painters of the late 16th and early 17th century, along with Zograf Jovan, Andrija Raičević, Zograf Radul, Sava Krabulević, Kozma Damjanović, Tripo Kokolja, Zograf Dimitrije, Strahinja of Budimlje, Kyr Georgije and Kyr Kozma. Mitrofanović's work on the church at the Morača Monastery is considered one of his best. Among the icon painters working in the Byzantine tradition in Slavonia were Nikola Klisur (mid 17th century) and Ostoja Mrkojević in the late 17th century.

Traditional Serbian art was beginning to show some Baroque influences at the end of the 18th century as shown in the works of Nikola Nešković, Teodor Kračun, and Jakov Orfelin. Painting of the early Baroque did not create a homogeneous group of painters. It developed under the Russian Ukrainian and Southern Balkan basis and the influences that had slowly arrived from Western European art centers. The first generation of Baroque painters nourished on the learnings of the Russian painters Vasilije Romanovich and Jov Vasilijevich, then the trainee of the Kiev Academy of painting, Dimitrije Bačević, Vasa Ostojić, Joakim Marković, Јован Поповић (сликар), Amvrosije Janković, Dimitrije Popović, Teodor Stefanov Gologlavac, Hadži Ruvim Nenadović, and Stefan Tenecki. The work of Balkan icon painters in the Habsburg monarchy throughout the 18th century. Teodor Simonov (born in Moschopolis) worked for the Serbian Orthodox Metropolitanate of Karlovci during the eighth decade of the 18th century. Simonov painted the walls of the church monastery in Stolni Beograd, today's Székesfehérvár in Hungary. The works of Jovan Četirević Grabovan who completed part of his education in Imperial Russia, and returned to the Habsburg monarchy to settle in Osijek in Slavonia where he developed a rich icon painting activity. The works of others who also came originally from southern parts of the Balkans (once known as Old Serbia) such as Hristofor Žefarović and Janko Halkozović, created in the spirit of the Levant Baroque, relying on the transferred experience of Italian Renaissance art and the Byzantine tradition, which resulted in a distinctive model of Baroque icons. The originator of the more direct rotation on Central European models was Joakim Marković, whose work is linked to the first portraits and Still lifes, and in church painting of historical compositions and heraldic depictions. High Baroque art was reflected in the firmer cultural orientation towards Vienna, as well as church and school reforms. The changes are visible in the works of Teodor Kračun who in his work represents a significant step towards understanding the actual Central European art. The retrospective Orthodox heritage confronted the emphasized emotionality and the movement as a fundamental element of artistic expression. Scenes are placed in the real world, Christ and Mary are depicted according to the rules of the secular ruler iconography and rely on graphic templates from popular illustrated Bibles. The group of representatives of the High Baroque include Mojsije Subotić, Grigorije Davidović Obšić, Grigorije Jezdimirović and Lazar Serdanović. The emergence and development of Late Baroque painting had been determined by the cultural and political changes of the time of Joseph II. Conceptual changes in the era of enlightened and learned man the Enlightenment marked the last decade of the 18th century. The learned artist, traveling the European capitals of Art, accepts and implements the ideas of the Enlightenment reforms. Among the artists who took Serbian painting of Central European Late Baroque formulation, Jakov Orfelin and Teodor Ilić Češljar stand out. They are joined by master woodcarvers Marko Gavrilović and his sons, Arsenije and Aksentije Marković and Marko Vujatović. Neoclassicism as the style of the new era, based on the ideas of the Enlightenment, would not jeopardize the ruling Late Baroque conception in the first decades of the next century. Such a sequence is identified in the works of painters Stefan Gavrilović, Jovan Isailović Sr., Georgije Mišković and Mihajlo Živković. Among the important painters were Nikola Nešković, Teodor Kračun, Teodor Ilić Češljar, Pavel Đurković, Dimitrije Bačević, Georgije Bakalović, Stefan Gavrilović, Jovan Četirević Grabovan, Jovan Pačić, Jovan Stergević and others.

In terms of periodization, monuments can be divided into those from the period of the Principality, period of the Kingdom of Serbia, the monuments from the period of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, as well as those built in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the present day Republic of Serbia. Serbian naïve art painters include Dušan Jevtović and Milosav Jovanović. The first part of 21st century, with young artists like Jovanka Sanijenovic or Simonida Rajčević, marks a predominance of a figurative art linked to realism – a realism "where everything is real and nothing is real – considering contemporary time as needing a return to what is real and concrete, and at the same time social and existential". The Human Rights Logo was created by Serbian graphic designer Predrag Stakić.

At the beginning of the 1980s in Belgrade was established movement "New Image" painting with Milovan Destil Marković and Vlasta Volcano Mikić (Žestoki), later followed by (Alter imago group) Nada Alavanja, Tahir Lušić, Vladimir Nikolić and later Mileta Prodanović.

Maga Magazinović, philosopher and choreographer, was one of the most important figures of contemporary physical practice in Serbia before the Second World War. The emancipation of the body in her work was realized through the application of gymnastics, dance and physical education. During the 1960s and 1970s history of the contemporary dance developed in the framework of performance art, body art and happenings. On the status of the body can meditate in the works of Marina Abramović and Katalin Ladik. The performance art of the eighties was marked by a specific attitude toward ideology. This attitude is manifested in the work within the context of using utopian socialist iconography. During the '90s performance art was focused on the fight against the regime. Marina Abramović is the most prominent Serbian performance artist. Active for over three decades, she has been described as the "grandmother of performance art." She pioneered a new notion of identity by bringing in the participation of her observers. Her art focuses on the theme of “confronting pain, blood, and physical limits of the body,” while relying on the extent of these discomforts based on the actions of her audience members. Another performance artists include Gabrijel Savić Ra, Nela Antonović, Lidija Antonović, Predrag Radovančević.