Balsa Djurié Plato, Plutarch and the Sibyl in the Fresco Decoration of the Episcopal Church of the Virgin Ljeviska in Prizren
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Balsa Djurié Plato, Plutarch and the Sibyl in the Fresco Decoration of the Episcopal Church of the Virgin Ljeviska in Prizren The picturesque town of Prizren, near the border of Kosovo, Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, is home to one of the most important buildings of Serbian medieval art - the cathedra! of Prizren dedicated to the Virgin Ljeviska. The history of the Serbian Diocese of Prizren, which the cathedra! of the Virgin Ljeviska represents, starts with the conquest of the town from the Byzantines around 1210 and the replacement of the Greek bishop with a Serbian bishop in 1219. The present five-domed church, with its two narthexes, belt tower, and several chapels [Fig. 27], is the result of reconstruction in 1306/1307 under king Milutin, on the foundations of an earlier Byzantine basilica. 1 The walls of the church were painted three times: between 1220 and 1230,2 when a roof was put over the ruined basilica; around 1310, during the reign of king Milutin; 3 and again when the Turks turned the church into a mosque [Fig. 28] at a date that has yet to be established. 4 That the walls were decorated at all was discovered completely by accident in the early twentieth century. During the First Balkan War at the end of 1912 the Serbian army entered Prizren. One of the officers, an architect, noticed under the cracked white paint in what was at that time the mosque, some images of saints. 5 Between the Great Wars the minaret was removed and the church again looked as it had in the past. Money was collected for the restoration of the church, which did not take place until the end of World War Two. 6 The frescoes became visible again when the white paint, applied during the Turkish period, was completely removed during large-scale restoration from 1950 to 1952.7 Although partly damaged, these frescoes give us 1. D. Panié & G. Babié, Eoropom1ua JbeBIIUJKa (Belgrade 1975) 10. 2. Panié-Babié 54; V.J. Djurié. B113aHrnjcKe </JpecKey JyrocnaB11j11 (Belgrade 1974) 37: idem, Conoham1(Belgrade 1991) 14-15. 3. Panié-Babié 47-8: Djurié. Blt3aHn,jcKe </JpecKe49-50. 4. The dispute about the date of conversion into a mosque persists. There are two opinions. According to the first, it occurred in 1749 (P. Kostié, ~pKBeHH }{(lfBoT npaBocnaBH11x Cp6a y llp113peHy II lberoBoj 0Kom11111y XIX BeKy (ca ycnoMeHaMa n11cua) (Belgrade 1928) 72. 75-6) and this date is widely accepted in the earlier literature. According to the second, it was became a mosque immediately after the Turkish occupation of Prizren in 1455 (H. Kalesi, "Ka.na je upKea CeeTe lioropo.uHue JleeHUIKe y npHJpeHy npernopeHa y uaMHjy' llp11no311 3a Klblt}{(eHocT, je3IIK, 11cmp11jy 11 qJ0/1K110p28 (1962) 253-61): this opinion is still under investigation. The problem arises from the Jack of written documentation: the evidence of both authors is indirect and comes from stories passed from generation to generation, speculation, and other not-so-reliable sources. 5. M. Korunovié, 'ÜTKpHlie y lioropo.uHUHJbeBHUIKoj' Zo graf 5 ( 1974) 68. 6. He,aeJbHe11nycrpau1,je (21 April 1929) 3. 7. S. Nenadovié, Eoropo,a11ua JbeB1tUJKa, lbeH nocrnHaK II lbeHo Mecro y apx1treKryp11 M11nyn1110Bor BpeMeHa (Belgrade 1963) 37. Byzantine Narrative. Papers in Honour of Roger Scott. Edited by J. Burke et al. (Melbourne 2006). Plato, Plutarch and the Sibyl in the Virgin ljeviska, Prizren 275 an insight into the capabilities of both the thirteenth-century and the fourteenth century painters. 8 We also know the identity of the master craftsmen, Nikola and Astrapa, whose names were found in an inscription in the exonarthex [Fig. 29). 9 In genera!, the exonarthex and the frescoes preserved inside the church show certain traits that were new in contemporary Byzantine painting. This may well be due to the close relationship that existed between king Milutin and the Byzantine emperor, and to the well-educated counsellors and clerics surrounding the king. 1° Certain ly two of these clerics must be mentioned: bishop Damjan, in whose time reconstruction of the church was started, and his successor to the Episcopal throne, bishop Sava, later archbishop Sava III and head of the Serbian Orthodox church, in whose time most of the reconstruction and the whole of the decoration was completed. 11 Sava carne to the throne as an educated theologian from the Serbian Chilandar monastery on Mount Athos, and he participated in many artistic activities supported by king Milutin. 12 The five-dome church plan was very popular in Constantinople from the ninth century. It was particularly favoured in the Comnenian and Palaiologan eras because it allowed for a vivid interpretation of more and more complex theological and liturgical explanations of the hierarchy that exists in the terrestrial and heavenly worlds. 13 King Milutin and the bishops of Prizren accepted the compounded church shape, and in the Comnenian period an image of Christ was painted in each of the five domes, while the walls provided space for numerous Gospel cycles and representations of individual saints. The most interesting attempt to explain dogma through paintings can be found in the decoration of the exonarthex. The usual programmes of Serbian churches, such as the Last Judgment and the Tree of Jesse, are included in the cathedra! of Prizren but here they are expanded with a large number of details and infused with new ideas. 14 In the exonarthex, as was a custom in the Byzantine and Serbian Episcopal churches, are depictions of local representatives of the church, local bishops, and all the Serbian archbishops. 15 The frescoes teach the viewer, through symbols and allegories, the dogma of 8. Djurié, BmaHntjcKe </Jpec«e37, 49-50; Panié-Babié 49-60. 9. Panié-Babié 22-7. 10. G. Babié-Djordjevié, 'KJJacwu,naM )lo6a naJJeoJJora y cpncKoj yMernocrn' Hcmp1tja cpnc«or Hapo,aa(6 vols Belgrade 1981-3) 1:482-95. 11. Panié-Babié 18 and figs 4, 6. 12. Babié-Djordjevié, "KJJacwuw:mM'481. 13. G. Millet, Recherches sur /'iconographie de /'évangile aux XU'e, XVe, et Xlïe sièc/es, d 'après les monuments de Mistra, de la Macédoine et du Mont-Athos (Paris 1916) 25ft; 0. Demus, By=antine Mosaic Decoration (London 1953) 11-12: 0. Demus, The Mosaics of Norman Sicily (London 1950) 198tT:A. Frolow, 'Climat et principaux aspects de l'art byzantin' BS/ 26 (1965) 56-8; S. Dufrenne, Les programmes iconographiques des églises by=antines de Mistra. Bibliothèque des cahiers archéologiques 4 (Paris 1970) 23-39 and 49-65, with bibliography. 14. Panié-Babié 66. 15. Panié-Babié 66; N. Okunev 'ApHJJbe naMIITHHKcep6cKoro HcKyccTBaXIII eeKa' SemKond 8 (1936) 239; S. Petkovié, 311,aHocn11Kapcrno Ha no,apy'ljy lleh«e narp11japu11tje1557-1614 (Novi Sad 1965) 84-5. .