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PAINTER DIMITRIJE AVRAMOVIĆ (1815-1855) AND TREASURES OF OLD SERBIAN ART
Glittering of
Golden Seeds
He was educated in Vienna, but also studied on Mt. Athos, Thessaloniki, Constantinople, Belgrade. He
was one of the pioneers of the renewal of national self-consciousness in culture. We have the Charter
of Chilandar today thanks to his transcript. He made important portraits, introduced the subject of
“St. Nicholas returns sight to Stefan of Dečani” into Serbian icon painting, was founder of Serbian
caricature. His “Apotheosis of Lukijan Mušicki” is a masterpiece. A romanticist formed on classical
experience, close to Nazarenes and symbolists, perhaps the forerunner of surrealists. We have
seventy-seven of his works in the Residence of Princess Ljubica in Belgrade, open until May 3
By: Dejan Đorić
Nikola Kusovac is an art historian,
who not only makes a living
from art, but also lives for it.
He recently purchased an extraordinary
two-meter icon painted by Dimitrije
Avramović for a larger sum of money. It
is now in the Ružica Church in Belgrade,
attracting attention with its beauty. Thus
Kusovac also attracted attention to a jubilee:
two centuries since the birth and a
hundred and sixty years since the death
of Dimitrije Avramović. A large exhibition
was opened a year after the jubilee.
He is an almost forgotten great Serb, interesting
more to experts than the public,
although his short life was filled with
spiritual feats.
He lived only forty years. He was born
in Šajkaš, center of the Military Border for
several centuries, an independent Serbian
land within the Habsburg Monarchy, as
well as the central port of the river fleet,
which caused great trouble to the Ottomans.
Already in elementary school, he
drew events and heroes from national
history, painted small icons on glass, sold
in villages. After studying with painters
in Novi Sad, he enrolled in the Imperial
Academy of Art in Vienna. His main
role model was Friedrich von Amerling,
whose works he liked to copy. It was a
time of completely different views of art.
Students had to draw several years before
they would start painting. Avramović was
so remarkable, that already in his first year
of studying, he was permitted to copy old
masters in the gallery. He learned from
Raphael, Tintoretto, Rembrandt, Mengs,
Greuze, Italian, Spanish and Flemish artists.
Like Petar Kočić, who studied philosophy
in Vienna, and many other Serbian
students abroad, Avramović was poor
and hungry, but he absorbed knowledge
at his drawing and historical painting
classes, which were then lessons on religious
painting.
Miodrag Kolarić says that Avramović
was recommended to Prince Mihailo
Obrenović by Vuk Karadžić, who was
portrayed by the painter in 1840 in Vienna.
That same year, he began his sketches
for the iconostasis and wall painting for
the Cathedral Church in Belgrade. Both
works were completed four years later,
and he was afterwards engaged in church
painting in Topola and Vrdnik. This au-
Photo:
Željko Sinobad,
National Museum
Archive, “National
Review” Archive
SERBIA • N O 54 • 2016
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