BYZANTINE SERBIA
Although the medieval Serbian state gained its independence from the Byzantine empire in the late 12th century, artistically it remained well within the Byzantine sphere of influence.
Following the imperial model, the founder of Serbia, Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja, founded a monastery at Studeniča in 1190, and restored the house of Mt Athos. Royal patronage of monasteries reached its apex during the reign of Stefan Mulitin, who founded numerous abbeys in the 14th century, Gračanica being the most important.
The quality of the 13th- and early 14th-century Serbian murals may reflect the presence (or influence) of artists who fled Constantinople after the disaster of 1204 and relocated their workshops to the Balkans rather than return to the occupied capitol.
The structure of the iconographic programs of the Serbian fresco cycles, which are closely tied to the liturgical calendar and arranged in vertical hierarchies, are directly derived from Byzantine sources, most of which no longer survive. Just as the history of ancient Greek sculpture is reconstructed from Roman copies, the history of later Byzantine monumental painting is constructed largely from churches on the fringes of the empire.
1-3. St Nicetas the Goth, Christ in Majesty, The Presentation of the Virgin, Visoki Dečani, 1327/35.
4. Angel at the Holy Sepulchre, Mileševa
5-6. Dormition of the Virgin, Procession of Saints, Sopočani 1259/70
7. King Stefan Mulitin Donor Portrait, Gračanica, 1321
8-10. Communion of the Apostles, Sts Sava and Symeon (Stefan Nemanja), Studeniča, 1190/96.
