The Gracanica monastery, near Lipljan in Kosovo, is one of the last monumental
foundations of King Milutin Nemanjic. Built on the ruins of the former Church
of the Holy Virgin, the monastery, finished in 1321, was dedicated to the
Dormition of the Holy Virgin. On the southern wall of the chapel is written
the king's charter, including the following words: "I have seen the ruins
and the decay of the Holy Virgin's temple of Gracanica, the bishopric of
Lipljan, so I have built it from the ground and painted and decorated it
both within and without".
The narthex and the tower were added a few decades later, in
order to protect the frescoes on the west facade. The narthex
was heavily damaged by the Turks several times between
1379-1383, when the tower was burned and the fire devoured a
rich collection of manuscripts and other precious objects. The
narthex was reconstructed in 1383. Again, Gracanica suffered
damages at the time of the Kosovo battle (1389).
During Turkish rule Gracanica became an important cultural center. In
the time of Metropolitan Nikanor (1528-1555) several icons were painted
on the altarpiece. Also, because of the printing press, Nikanor obtained
numerous service books and objects for the monastic use. The royal doors
were commissioned in 1564 by Metropolitan Dionisije, whose death is represented
on a fresco in the narthex. Major restoration took place through efforts
of Patriarch Makarije Sokolovic. All the openings on the external narthex
were walled up and new frescoes were completed in 1570. Thanks to Patriarch
Pajsije, the church got its leaden roofing, and in 1620 the large cross
with the Crucifixion was made on the iconostasis. The monastery was exposed
to new damages toward the end of the seventeenth century, in the war between
Austria and Venice against the Turks, after the second siege of Vienna
- in which the Serbs took part on the Christian side. They rebelled against
the sultan Jeghen Pasha terrorizing Serbia, who removed the leaden cross
and pulled out the floor tiles, together with the treasure hidden in the
church by Patriarch Arsenije III.
Gracanica represents the culmination of the Serbian medieval
art of building in the Byzantine tradition. The church has the
form of a double inscribed cross, one inside the other, the
inner one providing for a vertical silhouette so as to raise the
central dome upwards on a graded
elaboration of masses. The dome rests on four free-standing
pillars. Above the spaces between the cross-shafts, four smaller
domes give a regular structure to the whole crowning complex.
Three three-sided apses (the central one being the largest) put
a mild distinction on the altar space externally. The diaconicon
and the prosthesis are separated by full walls. Between the nave
and the narthex there are wide, heavy pillars and the catholicon
is on a level higher. The church was built in
alternate courses of brick and stone. At the end of the fourteenth
century an exonarthex was added with double arcades, but these
were blinded in the sixteenthth century.
In the church three kinds of painting can be discerned. The
earliest is found in the nave, whereas two later ones can be
recognized in the narthex. The frescoes were painted in 1321-22.
The painting works have been well-preserved. The compositions in
the nave deal with the earthly life of Jesus and the
ecclesiastical calendar.
The focal paintings of Gracanica include the Festival Cycle, the Passion
and the miracles of Christ. Inside the narthex, there are portraits of
the founders: King Milutin and Queen Symonida, Queen Helen d'Anjou (king's
mother) as a nun and King Milutin as a monk. Of particular importance
is the Nemanjich dynasty genealogy, the first ever painted, which starts
with Stefan Nemanja and ends with Milutin. Also in the narthex, there
is an exhaustive illustration of the Last Judgment. The scenes from the
life of St. Nicholas are in the north parecclesion, while the walls of
the south one display scenes from the Old Testament and the lives of Christ
and the Mother of God. The master painters supposedly were Michael and
Eutihije with their assistants.
There are also considerable frescoes from 1570 in the exonarthex, commissioned
by Patriarch Makarije Sokolovic. There are some paintings in the narthex
that date back to the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, including
the Baptism of Jesus, parts of the Virgin's Akathistos Hymns and the Ecumenical
Councils. Two subjects, however, dominate the narthex of Gracanica: the
Doxology to the Holy Virgin and the procession of the Serbian archbishops
from Saint Sava to Patriarch Makarije Sokolovic. A historical composition
of the death of the Metropolitan of Gracanica Dionisije covers the southeastern
part of the narthex.
The paintings of Gracanica rank highest among the achievements of Milutin's
period, characterized by influences of the Byzantine splendiferous and
luxurious style called the Paleologan Renaissance. In terms of style,
they are also related to the art of the other of Milutin's foundations.
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