On the Frescoes of the Bela Crkva (White Church) of Karan and the Contemporary Painting of Raška

Dragan, Vojvodić

Zograf

31

135

152

0350-1361

10.2298/ZOG0731135V

http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/Article.aspx?ID=0350-13610731135V

2006-2020/03/10/19:38:50

The results of a more careful examination of the painting in Raška from the period of the king and later, of the emperor, Stefan Dušan (1331-1355) render untenable the earlier assessments about its strikingly provincial character and negligible artistic value. The fragmentarily preserved painting of the exonarthex in Djurdjevi stupovi, in Budimlja (spring 1343 - autumn 1345), and St. Nikola in Palež near Studenica (probably the fifth decade of the 14th century), undoubtedly indicate a highly progressive style and very high artistic value. According to their pictorial features, these two monuments are no less sophisticated than the most advanced fresco ensembles of Dušan's times in Macedonia. Besides that, in the painting of the Budimlja exonarthex and the church in Palež, one can also perceive certain iconographic and programmatic novelties, which are characteristic of churches from that period in the south eastern parts of the Serbian state (the Menologion, the elevation of the rulers' portraits to the second zone of the fresco paintings, etc). The coordination of the iconography and the programme with the principles of the Palaiologan high renaissance can also be observed in the fresco painting of some other monuments of Raška from the reign of Stefan Dušan. We refer to the Church of the Annunciation in Dobrun, the exonarthex in Sopoćani, the Chuch of St. Nicholas in Baljevac, the so-called Latin Church in Prokuplje, and St. Nicholas in Usee. In the majority of the said monuments, one can notice traces of the rather lively cultural relations with the central and southern parts of the expanded Serbian state. Nevertheless, the painting in the enumerated churches has been only fragmentarily preserved. Consequently, considerations about the fresco painting of the Bela Crkva Karanska (the White Church of Karan) as a rather well preserved monumental ensemble, acquires particular significance for art research in the north western part of Dušan's state.