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The paper discusses the relic of the head of the Serbian patriarch Pajsije, recently discovered in the Patriarchate of Peć monastery. Besides a painted cryptogram, the head also includes an extensive inscription with information about Pajsije’s title, time of reign, date of death and place of burial. Taking into account the historical and ideological context, the paper argues that the impetus for establishing Pajsije’s cult came from Patriarch Maksim, his follower and admirer. An analysis of archaeological documentation has shown that Pajsije’s tomb was located at the same spot as Patriarch Maksim’s grave later on. An icon of Patriarch Pajsije now kept in Ravenna made up a unified cultic ensemble with the coffin-reliquary.

The present paper examines two bronze censers with Christological relief compositions from the Georgian National Museum. The analyses of their stylistic and iconographic features shed more light on the dissemination of the bronze censers produced in the East Christian artistic centers. The paper attempts to determine the time and place of creation of these liturgical objects. I will also offer some observations concerning the relationship between metal incense burners of Syro-Palestinian origin and those made in different places throughout Christendom.

The paper deals with the architectural sculpture of the twelfth century Church of the Holy Virgin at the Studenica Monastery. Its parallels with Italian Romanesque sculpture have long been identified in academic literature, and attention has been drawn to the influence of classical sculpture, mostly in terms of style, which has been attributed to the impact of Byzantine art. The paper demonstrates that all the motifs present in Studenica’s sculptural decoration originate from Romanesque sculpture in the Italian regions of Emilia Romagna and Apulia. Most of them rely on ancient Roman models and the motif known as peopled or inhabited scrolls is dominant among them.

The paper analyses late Gothic and early Renaissance imagery on the reliquary casket of Saint Tryphon kept in the Kotor Cathedral. The iconography of the torture and death scenes of the young martyr Tryphon, as well the representation of the architecture on the model of the town of Kotor in the hand of Saint Tryphon opens up the possibility of interpreting this reliquary in a historical context. The paper proposes an interpretation of the iconography of the scenes on the reliquary casket as part of the constructed memory of the Ottoman siege of Kotor under the command of kapudan pacha Hayreddin Barbarossa (1539) and the Venetian defense of the town. A similar way of creating memories through juxtaposing images of Turks, members of the Holy League and Kotor’s devotees under the protection of Saint Tryphon has been recorded in poetry, chronicles, and epistles. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177003: Medieval heritage of the Balkans: institutions and culture]

The paper discusses the figures on the bema of the altar apse in the Church of St. Demetrios of Markov Manastir (Marko’s Monastery) painted in 1376/1377. It offers a more detailed overview of the programmatic and iconographic characteristics of previously known depictions of the Virgin’s ancestors and identifies the second ancestral couple. Following a reexamination of hypotheses that have been suggested so far, the paper concludes that the second pair of Old Testament personages should be identified as representing the original ancestors of humanity - Adam and Eve. The visual solution incorporating Sts. Joachim and Anne as well as Adam and Eve is highly unusual. The paper also discusses the peculiar thematic concept in the central apse of Markov Manastir, which was conceived so as to draw attention of the faithful to the human nature of Christ, while the choice of ancestors underlines the role of the Virgin’s parents in the economy of salvation and emphasizes the theological idea of absolution from ancestral sin and the rebirth of humanity beginning with the incarnation of God-Man. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177003: Srednjovekovno nasleđe Balkana: institucije i kultura]

The paper publishes an icon of the Virgin Hodegetria, a Royal Door, and two parts of an epistyle with the Deesis scene. This group of works, which once decorated the iconostasis in the Church of Saint George Mouzeviki (c. 1550-1560) in Kastoria, belongs to the creative opus of the painter Anthony (zographos Antonios), known for his work at Mount Athos (1537-1552). The paper also argues that the frescoes in the Church of St. George, preserved in fragments and in a poor state of repair, can also be attributed to the same artist.

The paper is dedicated to the origin of the fresco paintings in the Annunciation Church of the Theotokos Monastery in Supraśl (Poland). The results of previous studies were presented. A description of the original layout of the frescoes was necessary to determine iconographic solutions that suggest the painters’ place of origin. In this context, the paper proposes the Balkan or Serbian origin of the style of the frescoes in Supraśl and some of their iconographic motifs and scenes.

The paper discusses twelve visual depictions that in all likelihood represent St. Ignatios of Constantinople and were created between the ninth and the thirteenth century. Most of these depictions show Patriarch Ignatios beardless, which reflects the fact that he was a eunuch of the ἐκτομίας category. The paper analyzes two iconographical elements distinctive of his portraits: beardlessness and youthful appearance. It concludes that, on the one hand, the artists who painted the beardless portraits of Ignatios strove to depict the saint as realistically as possible; while, on the other hand, his beardless and youthful appearance also had a metaphorical meaning and served to highlight the chastity and purity of the eunuch saint. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177032: Tradition, Innovation and Identity in the Byzantine World]

Based on a rereading of King Dušan’s chrysobulls to the Treskavac Monastery, the paper indicates a link between the sacred space of the Treskavac Monastery on the mountain and the urban space - i.e. the medieval city of Prilep and the nobility - at the foot of the mountain. Judging by these charters, the reasons for bestowing donations on the Treskavac Monastery by the numerous members of the aristocracy in Pelagonia and Prilep seem to suggest a religious and funerary context. At the same time, the paper aims to highlight sacred topography, i.e. the churches in the possession of the Treskavac Monastery which made up a sacred network on the territory of Prilep and were vertically, spiritually and economically tied to the monastery on the mountain.

The paper analyses the questions of the influences of the Christian East on Serbian medieval art based on the works in which such impacts have been recognized in previous studies, carried out at the time when many Eastern Christian monuments had yet to be studied and published. They include the headpiece at the beginning of the Miroslav Gospel, the first-layer frescoes at the Hermitage of St. Peter of Koriša and the miniatures in the Prizren Gospel. Finally, the paper addresses the question of whether the influence of the Christian Orient reached Serbia via the Apennine Peninsula or came directly from the East. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177036: Srpska srednjovekovna umetnost i njen evropski kontekst]

This paper examines Greek-Orthodox ecclesiastical embroidery in Ottoman Constantinople after 1453 until the emergence of the Constantinopolitan School of embroidery. We are well informed about the artistic production that flourished between the last decades of the seventeenth century and midnineteenth century via preserved artifacts and inscriptions bearing the embroiderers’ signature. Nevertheless, our knowledge of the production between the fall of Byzantium and the last decades of the seventeenth century is lacking. In this paper, our aim is to evaluate whether the Byzantine artistic tradition continued to live in the Greek Constantinopolitan production. The iconographical and technical analysis of different artifacts will give the answer to this question revealing at the same time the foundation basis of the embroidery of that School.

This paper presents and interprets the iconographic programme of the frescoes in the lowest register of the sanctuary in the church of St Demetrios at Markov Manastir in the context of the relationship between mural decoration and the contemporary Eucharistic rite. In the first part of the paper special attention is paid to the scene in the north pastophorion, which illustrates the prothesis rite, and the depiction of the Great Entrance, placed in the sanctuary apse. The iconographic and programmatic features of the fresco ensemble, the most pominent place among which is occupied by the representations of the deceased Saviour and Christ the Great Archpriest - are compared to various liturgical sources and visual analogies (monumetal painting and liturgical textiles) in the medieval art of Serbia and Byzantium. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177003: Medieval heritage of the Balkans: Institutions and culture]

This paper examines the rhetorical capacity of architecture, and in particular, “the rhetoric of architecture” rather than the usually examined “rhetoric about architecture.” In this work, the rhetoric of architecture is understood as codified visual and architectural conventions as a series of transpositions that frame specific meanings other than and beyond visible and spatial. Here the proposed “rhetoric of architecture” is also more about its capacity as a “mnemonic tool” and about the “craft of composition” rather than about persuading others or about representation based on exact likeness. This concept is particularly significant in the creation of the sacred. By focusing on the architecture of the critical building of the Holy Sepulchre that enclosed the Tomb Shrine in Jerusalem as described by Patriarch Photios in the ninth and Abbot Daniel in the early twelfth centuries, this paper argues for the recognition of the mnemonic links that the Byzantines may have used not only for remembering the Tomb of Christ, but also for their several reconstructions of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem as well as for embedding the meaning of Jerusalem and New Jerusalem in their churches built elsewhere.

This paper discusses the nature and inherent symbolics of the material of choice of which the body of the church of the Virgin Euergetis at Studenica was fashioned. In view of Byzantine theological concepts deeply ingrained in this material, concepts which were present and well understood also among the learned theologians of medieval Serbia, this paper presents the implied messages behind such a choice of material as well as the possible theological, ideological and political interpretations and applications of this medium at the time of Nemanja’s founding of Studenica and raising of the church of the Virgin therein. It thus questions the theory of its marble facades as simply a case of a Byzantine structure clad in Romanesque garb.

Painted around 1330, this fresco is located on a large section of the western façade of the church of the Mother of God Hodegetria at Peć above the entrance that leads from the monumental narthex into the interior of the building. It is a composition, joining the unusual image of the holy patroness of Archbishop Danilo II's ecclesiastical endowment, accompanied by two figures of angels in adoration, to create an iconographic whole with a twin presentation of the archpriests, St. Nicolas and Danilo II himself bowing in prayer. After giving a careful and detailed description of the entire content and setting of the painting, first of all, the paper discusses the content and message conveyed in the choice of the image of the Mother of God with Child, which, in the given assembly of figures, is distinguished by its central position and enlarged proportions. A perception of the views maintained so far, regarding the interpretation of this composition, and the specific points related to the choice of the central figure, when attempting to decipher its meaning, leads to considering that in a certain reinterpretation of the aforesaid, quite specific representation of the patroness of the Serbian archbishop's church endowment, there also lies the key for the explanation of the twin presentation of the two hierarchs in prayer, as well as for shedding light on the inter-relationship of all the figures involved in the painting, i.e. for perceiving the logic of uniting them in one composition. Even though a new attempt at comprehending the content and the subtle message of the fresco largely rests upon the examination and thorough research of comparative material that previous research workers have already noted as being significant for the examination of the given solution, this does not hold for the conclusions arising from the observation of that material. There is a critical review particularly of the previous conclusions that remain within the confines of an overstretched and unconfirmed hypothesis about the direct historical link between the Peć figure of the Mother of God and the supposed, unpreserved, almost contemporary Constantinople prototype, or some early copy of the same model - the icon of the Mother of God Zoodochos Pege - the design of which was the result of the newly established cult of the homonymous Constantinople monastery. A certain dissociation from the highly conventional trend of interpreting the figure of the Mother God on the western facade of Danilo II's church, i.e. from the views linking it to the said cult, also depends on the results of the analysis of some of the iconographic details that so far have not been evidenced or commented. On this occasion, they are associated with an important, especially enlightened series of unusual and quite specific motives that give the Peć iconographic pattern the stamp of uniqueness among all the iconographical solutions with which it has been compared (both earlier on and in this work), including those described as the most closely related. These latter solutions were noted only in chronologically later representations, painted in the altar apses (Ohrid, Psaca, Aliveri Kastoria). And so, new more thorough and more detailed iconographic examination established a series of quite distinctive features in the depiction of the patroness of Danilo II's church in Peć, different both in terms of the typologically clearly defined Late Byzantine images of the Mother of God Zoodochos Pege and in terms of the recorded most closely related solutions that have to date mainly been classified in the aforesaid type of image of the Mother of God, but as a separate variant. Among the earlier Byzantine and Serbian artworks, there is definitely not a single work that could make it possible to distinguish an eventual, concrete model for the Peć image, in other words, which could confirm its quality as a copy, although it is possible to trace the origin of some particular elements of the unconventional iconographic assembly of the image concerned, as well as principled or conditional analogies or "borrowings". Among the iconographic motives that render the solution of the Mother of God's image above the entrance to Danilo's endowment in Peć unique and unconventional, and to which this paper pays particular attention, are the following: the ochre-golden vessel with Christ-Amnos (the liturgical Lamb) on the breasts of the Mother of God, the symbolic red colored aura οι glory around the figure of the Child, identical with the interior of the vessel and the unusual details of the costume of the Mother of God that otherwise do not appear in the other, numerous images of the Mother of God in the frescoes of Archbishop Danilo in Peć. As for the details of the costume, an appropriate place in the text is devoted, firstly, to considering the phenomenon of the particularly accentuated ochre-golden vertical bands on her tunic, as symbolic rivers of grace (potamoi), as well as the towel that like the liturgical enchiridion, tucked into the belt, peeps from beneath the vessel with Christ Amnos, identical to the appearance of the shirt the infant is wearing. It was established that through the appropriate aspects of meaning that can be attributed to them, all the said elements of the picture are linked in their own specific way with the mystery of the Eucharist itself, that is to say, with the central event of the liturgy. One can say the same regarding the posture of the figure of the Mother of God - representing her in a twofold capacity, as the supplicant and the recipient of divine grace, although with the choice of the atypical variant of the orans posture of the figure, this latter aspect is dominant, giving the former a special significance. The examination of the possible meanings of each of the distinctive elements in the formal arrangement of the image of the Mother of God, by themselves, and their inter-relationship therefore, leads one to feel that there is a common Eucharistic-ecclesiological context that conceptualizes their appearance and unification in a given, largely unconventional assembly. The meanings that are equivalent to the correlative, common context gives one reason to conclude that in the observed Peć fresco, the Mother of God's image is depicted as the symbol of the Church, that is, the holy mystery that fundamentally defines the Church, first and foremost in keeping with the well-known, dogmatically firm, vivid liturgical allusions of the Holy Fathers to the Church as "the body through which the blood of Christ flows" and which "is sanctified by the Holy Spirit ". The arguments for identifying the "mystery" of the person of the Mother of God (clearly defined by the dogma of the Incarnation of the Word) with the mystery of the Eucharist and the Church, in any case, is possible to find in theological literature, as well as in hymnographic-liturgical texts. The observed Eucharistic-ecclesiological implications of the iconographic contents in the center of the composition, and the observations referring to the particularly accentuated visual formulation which, as we also established alludes to the mystery of Holy Communion, are rounded off and indeed reaffirmed by the figures of the two archpriests - depicted in the lateral parts of the lower half of the painting, in liturgical vestments and in the characteristic posture of praying. The place of the composition, at the entrance into the church building, and the way in which the accompanying hierarchical images of St. Nicholas and Archbishop Danilo himself are connected to the dominant image of the Mother of God, reveal the dual function of the fully recorded content - the celebration of the patroness and guiding the prayer-related thoughts of those who enter the church to the "true" significance of their entry, connected with the experience of the holy mystery of the Church. The exaltation of a patron, as the basic and most frequent function of the pictures above the entrance to a church, in this case, has served, therefore, as some kind of basic motive for the affirmation of the subtle message of the Christian teachings of salvation through the Church. This kind of concept was achieved by a series of unified allusions to the liturgical, Eucharistie mystery of the "Body of Christ" (which equally implies the Body Incarnate and the Body of the Church), in other words, the sacred "incorporation" into "the Mystical Body of Christ" through the Eucharistie "Holy Mysteries" (the Holy Communion with the Flesh and Blood). In shedding light on the place and function of the presentation of the two hierarchs, which are a component part of the whole compositional arrangement of the assembly - and whose inclusion in the picture is defined in a specific way by the indicated context and the proposed comprehension of the image or motive in the center of the composition - several important and indicative moments are singled out. One should recall the fact that the two figures in elaborate hierarchical vestments, and bowed in prayer are. in fact, positioned in an atypical place in the topography of the church building, and in an unusual combination linked in a completely equal manner with the unconventional portrayal of the Mother of God (who, as it was concluded, equally represents the image of the patroness of the church just as she symbolizes the mystery of the liturgy or that of the Church). The image of Danilo II. representing the incumbent newly-consecrated archbishop (he is not depicted in his capacity as a donor), is equated with the image of the renowned saint of Myra. Meanwhile practically, it constituted the crown of the original, representative series of standing figures of the Serbian archbishops (Danilo's predecessors on the throne), distributed along the lower zone of the eastern wall of the narthex, in the section between the entrance into the Church of the Mother of God and the Royal Doors of the neighboring, oldest church of the Holy Apostles. The image of St. Nicholas does not remind one only of the prototype of the ideal bishop and one of Danilo's confirmed holy patrons (although there is no doubt that he was chosen for these reasons), but also as the coefficient of the incumbent, living shepherd of the Serbian Church. Despite the unconventionality, there is justification for the chosen solution and a definite meaning in the concrete, valid and indicative postulates of authentic Eucharistie ecclésiologie regarding this choice which, as some other, earlier studies have shown, was close to the theological ideas of Archbishop Danilo himself. One of those postulates also identifiable in Danilo's literary writings, refers to the teachings about the Eucharistic-Episcopal nature and function of the Church as an institution (a liturgical-hierarchical organism). The same implies that only through the archpriests (i.e. through their service in the priesthood and charisma), and only in the context of the holy mysteries of the Eucharist do all the faithful, the participants of the concrete, Eucharistic ally defined, congregational community and the members of a unique liturgical-hierarchical organism, become "the limbs of the living body of Christ" - the Church in all its integrity. According to the view presented in this paper, it is through the aforesaid twin figures - by means of which the Serbian archbishop, as the person who commissioned the painting and initiated its iconographic solution, deliberately points to the archpriest as the chosen recipient and conveyor of God's grace in the living liturgical and hierarchical organism of the Church - that the idea symbolically expressed and anticipated by the central figure of the patroness of the church, the Mother of God, is expanded and contextually supplemented. Moreover, this idea receives further elaboration, in a new way, in the themes of the iconographic program inside the church. In connection with the said ecclesiological postulate, one also considers the significance of the blessing, which the depicted Infant God on the breast of the holy patroness of Danilo's building conveys to the two hierarchs. The very position of the composition, as part of the concrete concept, leaves room for speculation about conveying the same blessing on all (the faithful living participants in the congregational service) who cross the threshold of the church building. The article continues with a discussion of the definition of the place and role of the hierarchs in the Church, the respective postulates concerning the relation of the "local" and the "universal" Church, as well as the tenet implying that through its bishop or rather in his person, each particular or local church is linked both with the past and with "all the centuries. The confirmation of the validity of these postulates for understanding the logic of the fresco solution above the entrance to the church endowment of Danilo II, is seen precisely in the picture of the joint prayer of the two hierarchs, and in the fact that the image of the incumbent archbishop of Peć, "the consecrated" Danilo II, was placed on an equal footing with St Nicholas. Seeking a solution for the painting that occupies a prominent place in the topography of the church building, and which, in keeping with convention, should represent the holy patron, the donor of the church and commissioner of the fresco did not opt for the standard picture of the patroness of the church building. According to the presented interpretation of the solution that was achieved, he chose the image which, in the assemblage of a more complex iconographic whole also materialized and manifested the developed theological idea of the Mother of God as an ontological image of the Church itself, and the prototype of the mystery that gives the Church its identity, with which it manifests itself during the liturgical service as an icon of the eschatological community of God and man. It involves the concept that accords with the circumstance that the donor and the commissioner of the fresco was the newly-consecrated archbishop, as well as with the fact that the church belonged to the archiépiscopal see, of which he was the head. Moreover, the depicted meaning of the image also coincides with the messages of the iconographic themes painted in the most prominent places within the same church building, and confirms the already observed coherence of the themes of the painted program that Danilo intended for his endowment dedicated to the Mother of God. The findings published in this paper offer it seems, a particularly interesting testimony of the connection of the ideas in the composition above the entrance to the church with that of the corresponding, equally rare, and uniquely resolved iconographic theme of the Communion of the Apostles at the opposite end of the church, in the altar apsis, where the central part depicts a symbolic presentation of the New Jerusalem in the form of a church. The relation of the painted themes reveals an unusual complementanness of the ideas expressed in both paintings, and indeed the consistent progression of the unique program concept, combining in a subtle way two very distinct and particularly emphasized points in the topography of the church, two fundamental antipodes on the ascending mystagogical trajectory of west-east - the symbols of "potentiality " and "realization", "designation" and "fulfillment". In a way. with the proposed interpretation of the iconographic content above the entrance in the same church, one can sec in a new light what the author of the life of Danilo II. Danilo's younger contemporary and disciple, says at the beginning of his account of the endowments of this archbishop in Peć. and especially about the church "named after the Most Blessed (Mother of God)". In that sense, the concluding considerations in the paper express the assessment that the painting which decorates the façade of the church with its dedication to the Mother of God llodegetria, as the materialization of the conception behind which the donor himself certainly stood, lends a certain weight and seriousness to the fact that the biographer and the witness of the work of his teacher and pastor called this endowment Archbishop Danilo's "feat of investiture" - laconically announcing the motives of its erection. Linked with the custom of celebrating the holy patron, and revealing itself as a certain sublimation of the pastoral profession of the basic postulates of faith in salvation through the Church of the newly established hierarch of the House of the Saviour, the content of the same painting - as it was finally concluded - fulfills and deepens in a rather special way the impression which the mentioned text offers regarding Danilo's respective motives.

This paper offers the first overview of the appearance and origin of architectural decorations built into the ramparts of the fort at Novo Brdo. It considers parts of decorations that have a wide repertoire of tracery motifs in shallow relief, as well as parts of the decorative-constructive composition of the facades. The research results suggest that these carved decorations belonged to two destroyed churches, unknown today. All the mentioned fragments indicate the manner of construction, decoration and artistic partition of the composition of the facades, which corresponds to the architecture of the most representative churches of Moravian Serbia.

The paper presents extant writings about St. John Kolobos or the Little (c. 339 - c. 409), a monk who lived in a lavra in Scetis in the Nitrian Desert in Egypt. Attention is paid to his relics, which were transferred from Clysma near Suez to his monastery in the Nitrian Desert at the end of the eighth century. Basic data about the Monastery of St. John the Little, abandoned at the end of the fifteenth century, are presented. Preserved medieval representations of the saint are listed. Conclusions about his cult and depiction in art follow in the final part.

The paper deals with the representations of rulers on the coinage of Prince Lazar while tracing the iconographic and insignological changes in the depiction of the prince, which reflected Lazar’s political program in different phases of his reign. Modeling his first representations on the dinars he minted on the coinage images of the emperors Dušan and Uroš, shaped on their money according to the formulas of Byzantine imperial images, after consolidating his power, Lazar gradually left the framework of the Byzantine ruler iconography and entered the sphere of the western monarchical image, culminating in the representation of the prince depicted in a profile bust with a laurel wreath, created under the influence of Hungarian coinage.

The paper considers some characteristics of the wall paintings in the dome of the Virgin’s Church of Karan that have not been discussed so far. It identifies some biblical personages in the lower part of the dome cap and brings all inscriptions that have survived in it.

King Vladislav’s foundation, the Mileševa Monastery with its Church of the Ascension, was built in the thirteenth century near Prijepolje. The architecture and wall paintings of the church have already been exhaustively researched. However, the fragments of frescoes in the katholikon’s side parekklesia have remained unexplored, and the remnants of the scenes unidentified. Both lateral structures are dedicated to warrior saints - St. George and St. Demetrios. The imagery of these parekklesia included some images from the vitae of these megalomartyrs. The paper describes and identifies their remnants, comparing them with similar representations in the programs of other foundations.

The paper discusses an icon of the enthroned Mother of God with Christ, St. Nicholas, and St. John the Baptist in the National Archaeological Institute with Museum - Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (NAIM - BAS) in Sofia. The icon was previously dated to the fifteenth-sixteenth or fourteenth century. We propose its attribution to Longin, a renowned Serbian painter from the second half of the sixteenth century. This attribution is explained by the striking similarities of the stylistic characteristics and most iconographic elements of the Sofia icon with those of the painter’s signed works. The icon must have made its way to Sofia from the southern parts of Kosovo and Metohija, where it was probably created.

The mosaics of the Great Palace in Constantinople represent an exceptional work of art from the Late Antique period, unsurpassed in their style and composition features as well as the richness of the prevailing motifs. Thus, many researchers found them intriguing as they faced complex issues of their dating or attribution, stylistic and iconographic analysis, as well as the purpose of the building where the mosaics were located. In this paper, the intention was to point out a new possibility for the interpretation of this corpus of iconography, based on the cosmogony principle with the Earth (Gea) allegory in the central zone, and to give a contribution to its more reliable dating.

Several years ago, during the reconstruction and refurbishment of the Church of Saint Ana above Perast, the original layer of frescoes was discovered in this church, which is otherwise known for the wall paintings by Tripo Kokolja (beginning of the XVIII century). Since this church is also known as indicated in the paper, by the name of Saint Veneranda, or Saint Paraskevi, the point that was discussed first of all, was the change in the dedication of the church. On the basis of an analysis of the architecture it was argued that this was one of the oldest shrines in Perast, dating from the mid-XV century. Fragments of frescoes were then analysed, which made it possible to conclude beyond a doubt that Saint Paraskevi was painted on the triumphal arch, on the southern side, and above her, the Crucifixion. The placement of this scene in the main place in the temple resulted from the fact that the Church of Saint Ana was located at the end of the Way of the Cross (Via Crucis), in Perast. All this indicates that the educated population of Perast knew exactly how to create the sacral topography of a town. Finally, it seems that the paper proves, persuasively enough, that the wall paintings in Saint Ana are the work of Lovro Marinov Dobričević, a painter of Kotor and Dubrovnik from the middle and the latter half of the XV century.

The paper proposes a new dating for the early medieval Dubrovnik cathedral church of St. Peter the Great. Certain analogies have been found with the relief sculpture of the North Apulian cathedrals from the second quarter of the eleventh century. Thanks to them, and taking into account the history and organization of the Latin Church under the political rule of Byzantium in Apulia and in the Diocese of Dubrovnik in the tenth and at the beginning of the eleventh century, above all the political situation in the Byzantine Empire of that time - the construction of the Dubrovnik cathedral is placed in the same historical framework as the construction of North Apulian cathedrals - the first half of the eleventh century.

The paper proposes a stylistic link between the earliest wall paintings in the Church of the Ascension at the Mileševa Monastery, previously usually attributed to Thessalonian painters, and several icons from St. Catherine’s monastery on Mount Athos. Based on their visual similarity, it questions the earlier attributions of those Sinai icons, rejecting the view that they were painted by Western Crusader artists. Furthermore, their ascription to Byzantine artists is also supported by certain iconographic parallels with corresponding details on the frescoes of Mileševa.

St. Zotikos Orphanotrophos acquired great renown in Constantinople owing to his efforts in the establishment of two singularly important philanthropic institutions in the Byzantine Empire - Orphanotropheion (Ὀρφανοτροφεῖον) on the Acropolis of Constantinople and the Leprosarium in Pera (Golden Horn at Elaiones). The paper discusses an underexplored aspect of the veneration of St. Zotikos - his representations in art. It uses available liturgical sources, hagiographical testimonies and the scarce visual evidence to investigate and determine the reach of the cult of St. Zotikos Orphanotrophos, first in the wider framework of Eastern Christian art and then in Serbian medieval art.

The motif of hetoimasia is one of the most widespread and most complex in medieval iconography, and it has its roots in the Graeco-Roman and Jewish empty thrones of an invisible or absent deity. It gradually developed during the Late Antique period, and experienced its full flourishing in the Middle Ages. It has been appearing in the scenes of the Last Judgment since the eleventh century and, as such, inherits an eschatological connotation (Ps. 9: 7-8). Besides a survey of the earlier ways of percieving this problem, this paper offers alternative possibilities for interpreting the origin and development of the motifs of empty thrones and hetoimasia in Late Antiquity.

The paper presents extant texts narrating about St. Barbarus composed in Greek and in the Bulgarian recension of the Old Church Slavonic language. The veneration of the holy hermit and siderophoros, connected with the Nikopolis region and the Ambracian Gulf in the Greek written heritage and with Pelagonia in the Slavic one, is briefly discussed. His preserved medieval portrayals, found in Byzantium and in the Balkan countries, are listed. Finally, conclusions about his cult and representation are proposed.

The second part of this paper is dedicated to the ktetor portraits of church dignitaries in Serbian Post-Byzantine painting. It focuses on monastic ktetor portraits (hegoumenoi, hieromonks and monks), their vestments, discussing the state of monastic communities during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in the introduction. The concluding remarks summarise the placement of ktetorial portraits, corporal rhetoric (proskynesis), insignia, haloes and portrait characteristics, as well as the categories of ktetorship (founding, restoration, donorship), and the imagery and eschatological ideas constructing the visual culture of clerical ktetorship in Serbian Post- Byzantine painting.

The paper addresses a recently discovered rock-hewn chapel in the Davitgareji Desert, which has preserved late twelfth-early thirteenth century wall paintings dominated by a cycle of St Demetrios. The cycle, which finds no parallel in Georgia, is remarkable in many regards and raises important questions as to the chronology and geographical spread of such cycles, the provenance of unknown iconographical redactions, the history of the relics of St Demetrios, the function of the chapel dedicated to the saint, and the interaction between Georgian and Byzantine artistic and cultural traditions, in general.

The paper explores the painted ornament of the Holy Trinity chapel at the monastery of Saint John Chrysostom Koutsovendēs in Cyprus, founded by Eumathios Philokalēs (ca. 1100). When compared to that of other early Komnenian monuments on the island, the painted ornament at Holy Trinity stands out for its intricacy, diversity, and high-quality of execution, while its sophistication is demonstrated to be in keeping with the ambitious and erudite character of the painted ensemble as a whole. Not least, rather than being on the fringe, the painted ornament appears to have been fully integrated into the iconographic programme of the chapel, reiterating through metaphor the patron’s hope for salvation.

This paper examines church decoration during the Transitional period (ca. 650-850), focusing on unpublished elements from the Fatih Camii (Hagios Stephanos?) in Zeytinbağı (Trilye). Located on the south shore of the Sea of Marmara, the church may be securely dated to the early years of the ninth century. Among the variety of decorative details uncovered during an unauthorized restoration in 1997 are more than a dozen fragments of opus sectile. The variety of these panels expands the corpus of geometric patterns known from the period; in addition, opus sectile seems to have been used both on the walls and the floor.

The article focuses on the artistic transfer of the early printed books from the Cetinje printing shop, between the Mediterranean and the Danube region in the late medieval and early modern period. The master-printer Makarije made these books under the influence of the Italian, German and Slavonic printers operating in Venice. He later traveled throughout Southeastern Europe, spreading their influence to the Wallachian principality. The paper analyzes and compares the decorative elements in these books in order to understand their origin. The migration and the reception of the artistic elements of Makarije’s incunabula allow us to discover artistic dissemination routes.

The first part of the paper discusses the written testimonies about the history of the cult of the holy fathers of Sinai and Raithou at St. Catherine’s monastery and the visual representations of these saints in East Christian art. The Sinai icons in question are then analysed in two ways. First, the choice of figures of the saints in the upper registers of the icons is considered. On the other hand, the iconography of the forty Sinai and Raithou martyrs is studied in greater detail. It is shown that representations of the celebrated holy monks were used to paint their “portraits”.

In previous research the human figures represented in the initials on fol. 26v and 120r of the Miroslav Gospel have been interpreted as personifications of the Year (Annus). However, this view can be challenged based on their iconographic characteristics, the Gospel verses that follow, the place of these verses in liturgical practice and their comparison with relevant visual specimens. The paper proposes a new identification of the shown human figures. The figure in the initial on fol. 26v can be interpreted as an allusion to the Feast of Pentecost, while the image in the initial on fol. 120r could arguably represent the Old Testament patriarch Noah.

The paper discusses unknown frescoes in the narthex of the Patriarchate of Peć Monastery dating from c. 1332 and found during the conservation-restoration works undertaken in 1931. They were discovered above the younger vaults (the cycle of the Passion of Christ) and in the large arched openings on the western side of the narthex, which were walled up in the sixteenth century (cycle of the True Cross, busts and figures of saints). During works on the presentation of the monument in 1932, these frescoes were once again concealed without having been subjected to scholarly research. However, the photographs taken during the conservation works do allow them to be studied. The results of their research have significantly altered the picture of the original wall paintings in the narthex. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177036: Srpska srednjovekovna umetnost i njen evropski kontekst and Grant no. 177032: Tradicija, inovacija i identitet u vizantijskom svetu]

The paper presents extant texts narrating about St. Moses the Ethiopian or the Black written in Greek, Coptic, Ge’ez, Syrian, Arabic and Old Church Slavonic and reviews the cult of the saint connected to the Baramus Monastery in the Scetis Desert or the Nitrian Desert. His preserved images in Egypt, Palestine, Byzantium, and in the countries whose churches used various recensions of the Old Church Slavonic language are listed. The final part of the study proposes some conclusions on his cult and representation. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177036]

This paper explores the contents and historical context of the Cyrillic inscription written in old Serbian language with some Turkish words on the fresco “St. Nicholas takes Basil from the house of Emir” from the Church of St. Nicholas in Ramaća. Based on an analysis of the historical circumstances and events that took place at the end of the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth century on the Balkan Peninsula and especially in the Lazarević Principality, it is assumed that the presence of Turkish words in the mentioned inscription implies the influences of Islamic heterodox dervishes in the Christian milieu. The dating of the fresco painting from the Church in Ramaća can be narrowed down to the time of the reign of Stefan Lazarević. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177025]

Church dignitaries were often represented as ktetors in Serbian painting of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, primarily in wall paintings and on icons. The first part of this paper discusses twelve ktetor representations of Serbian patriarchs and metropolitans. By analyzing the ktetoric projects of Orthodox Serbs within the Ottoman Empire, the historical framework and description of every portrait, it explores the questions regarding not only the self-referentiality of the ktetors from the highest circles of the clergy under the Patriarchate of Peć, the patterns and ways they wanted to be represented and remembered, but also the ideological and program context as well. Finally, this two-part study attempts to examine the question of individual and collective identity, imagery and ideas constructing the visual culture of clerical ktetorship in Serbian Post-Byzantine painting.

The subject of this paper is the staurotheke which is now kept in the treasury of the Dominican monastery in Dubrovnik, Croatia. It originally belonged to the church of Sts. Peter and Paul in Ras, Serbia, to which it had been donated jointly by the Serbian King Stefan Uroš II Milutin and Bishop Gregory II of Raška (Rascia). The staurotheke in the shape of a double-armed cross is engraved with illuminating donor inscriptions on the front and back of the handle and a poetical epigram on the sides of the cross. Based on the palaeographical features of the inscriptions and the style of gold work, it has been established that the staurotheke was thoroughly renovated in the mid-sixteenth century but that the content of the inscriptions was faithfully copied from the original. The meaning and function of the staurotheke are discussed in the broader context of the cult of the True Cross in medieval Serbia. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177003: Medieval heritage of the Balkans: institutions and culture]

The paper presents the results of analysis of typological, stylistic- technical, epigraphic and iconographic features of the luxurious panagiarion, part of a complex reliquary, in the treasury of the Tersatto Monastery near Rijeka. The size and content of the panagiarion, made of jewels, pearls and relics in silver gilded revetments, provide basis to classify it within the group of Late Byzantine pectoral panagiaria-reliquaries and enkolpia of diverse forms. The dedicatory inscription on its reverse refers to despotissa Barbara Frankopan, the wife of the Serbian despot Vuk Grgurević, as its patron. The inscription on its rim and capsule with a miniature relief of the Virgin with Christ place it within the field of Orthodox personal devotion. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177003: Srednjovekovno nasleđe Balkana: institucije i kultura]

The paper deals with “King’s Painter” Tevdore and his inscriptions preserved in three churches of Upper Svaneti (northwestern highland region of Georgia) dated back to the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The textual and visual data allow us to reconstruct the status of the painter and his impact on the embellishment of these churches. The inscriptions are considered from various perspectives, with a special emphasis on their political and social context. Tevdore’s title stressing his ties with monarchic power aimed to extend the “royal presence” in Svaneti. The spatial constructs, creating semantic focuses for the display of authors’ inscriptions, permit an evaluation of his status and place in the given social system.

This paper presents the investigation of a scene on the second layer of paintings done around 800 in the Virgin Church of the Monastery of the Syrians (Deir al-Surian) in the Scetis Desert or the Nitrian Desert (Wadi Al-Natrun). In it one can see Saint Colluthos performing a surgical operation on an eye. Also presented are writings dedicated to the saint and his cult and images of him. One can recognise influences of pagan traditions and Christian iconographic patterns and details of contemporary everyday life in the scene. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177036]

The paper discusses the appearance of the synthronon, the position of the locus inferior (αρχιερατικός, or δεσποτικός θρόνος, the episcopal throne in the nave, donje mesto) of the Metropolitan of Požega at the Orahovica Monastery, fresco paintings inspired by the purpose of the throne in front of the sanctuary, and the views it incorporated. The synthronon is in fact a series of niches. The locus inferior has not survived; based on the fresco program, the author places it between the southwestern pillar and the southern wall. The fresco decoration of the locus inferior - one of the largest in Serbian art - is both centered on the topoi of the throne program and unique. Christ and the apostles from the apostolic Deisis draw on the teaching about Christ as the eternal leader of the liturgical community and the apostolic roots of the church and the office of bishop; by emphasizing the presence of St. Andronicus and St. Titus beside the seat, the program incorporates the tradition of the apostolic lineage of the church among the Slavs and in the Metropolitanate of Požega. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177036: Srpska srednjovekovna umetnost i njen evropski kontekst]

The paper discusses six icons, a pair of Royal Doors, as well as fragments of an epistyle with the Great Deesis, which are kept at the Byzantine Museum of Kastoria, apart from one icon which is displayed in the Metropolitan Palace of the city. We attribute these icons, which have originated from churches in Kastoria, to the artistic activity of the painter Ioannis from Grammosta. Although no icons in Northern Greece are known to have been made by him, the painter is very well-known due to his artistic activity from 1534/5 in the area of Prilep, Demir Hisar and Ohrid.

The paper discusses the structure and carved decoration of the restored marble sanctuary screen from the island of Koločep near Dubrovnik. Based on the early medieval history of present-day southern Dalmatia and the fragmentary inscription commemorating a queen as the donor of the screen, it may be concluded that she was one of the Serbian Doclean (Duklja) queens from the second half of the eleventh century. The inscription is the only evidence that the kings of Dioclea ruled over the Elaphite islands. The carved decoration is typical of the Middle Byzantine period (9th-12th century), with some regional traits. The only exceptions are the figures of putti. They can be associated with Romanesque architectural sculpture in southern Italy created in the late eleventh century, after the Norman conquest of this region. The author puts forward the hypothesis that the donor was Queen Jaquinta, wife of King Bodin (1081-1101), who was a Norman woman from Bari.

The paper explores the semiotic meaning of relief panels from a three-light window on the northern facade of the naos of the Church of Archangel Michael and St. Gavrilo of Lesnovo at the Lesnovo Monastery (1340/1341). Iconographically derived from tombstones and objects of everyday use, their geometrical and zoomorphic decoration seems to suggest that the ktetor and his family believed in the protective power of the symbols and signs carved on them.

In 1464 Pope Pius II donated a precious relic to the cathedral of Siena, his hometown-the right forearm and hand of St John the Baptist. On that occasion the appropriate document was drawn up-a donation charter. This paper offers a transcription of the Latin text of the charter (furnished with critical apparatus) and its translations into Serbian and English.

The paper takes a systematic approach to the hitherto unpublished relic of St John the Baptist’s right arm which is kept in a cache in Siena cathedral. It includes the available historical information about the relic’s journey from Serbia until its arrival in Siena (1464) and the circumstances in which it came into the possession of pope Pius II. It provides a detailed description both of the relic and of the reliquary, an exquisite piece of medieval goldsmithing and filigree work with few direct analogies. Particular attention is devoted to the inscription on the reliquary lid: “Right arm of John the Forerunner, cover me, Sava the Serbian archbishop.” Based on the inscription, the reliquary is identified as one of the founding objects of the treasury of the monastery of Žiča (the Serbian cathedral and coronation church) which was gradually built up in the first decades of the thirteenth century through the effort of Sava of Serbia. Discussed in the context of this topic are also the “veil” and the “cushion”, the luxurious textiles in which the Baptist’s arm was brought to Siena. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177003: Medieval heritage of the Balkans: institutions and culture]