On the antimension of the archbishop of Belgrade and metropolitan of Serbia Mihailo (Jovanovic)

Abstract

The activity of metropolitan Mihailo marked the second half of the XIX century and its different aspects were subjects of different scientific researches and interests. There are no clear data about the origin of the stereotypes of printed antimensions that he consecrated during his episcopacy. In his reforms of the Serbian Church metropolitan Mihailo looked up to the Russian Church in various aspects, hence after his enthronement he took over antimensions of the Russian Synod, breaking the practice of the use of the Serbian printed baroque antimensions. The new antimensions of the Russian Synodic typography were designed to replace the anachronic baroque antimensions. The most prominent Russian artists and the Synod of the Russian Church participated in the process of creation and harmonization of their product with the currents of historical Orthodox theology. The pictorial formulation of the se antimensions, created by Fedor Grigo-rievich Solntsev in 1856, was shaped in accordance with interpretation of the Russian-Byzantine style created during the historicism epoque, and its steel stereotype was engraved by the artist Konstantin Yako-vlevich Afanas'ev. The final version of the Synodic antimension was shaped and engraved by the Russian academic xylographer Lavrentiy Avksent'evich Seryakov in 1866. The antimension printed from the stereotype made by Solntsev and Afanas'ev and consecrated by metropolitan Mihailo in 1863 is the part of the collection of the Museum of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade. The antimensions printed from the cliche engraved by Seryakov in 1866 are preserved in the Cathedral church of Vranje (from 1867), the Museum of Macedonia in Skopje (from 1892), and Cathedral church of Negotin (from 1894). The tradition of metropolitan Mihailo was also followed by Serbian Patriarch Varnava (Rosic), who consecrated the Russian antimensions printed from the Seryakov's cliche in the 1930s. Besides the above mentioned and described Russian antimensions, a variation of the stereotype created by F.G. Solntsev together with engraver Afanas'ev, appeared in the wider Balkan area and it was printed in the lithographic printing houses in Constantinople and Sofia. The central composition of the Entombment of Christ retained the previous distribution and number of the figures, while the angels are omitted and on the left hand side the figures of the myrrh-bearing women are depicted in their places and on the right hand side there is an angel on a stone plate beside the empty grave. A realistic landscape was created in this way, in stead of the previously used neutral background with rays of light. This narrative type of the scene was shaped under the influence of Palestinian antimension iconography of the XVIII century in the spirit of Orthodox puritanism. This type of the antimension can be found in the Balkans and it was printed for the needs of various Orthodox Churches from Bulgaria to Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (Fig. 6). By attributing the country of origin and the author, and also by pointing out the assumptions according to which the antimensions used in the Serbian Church during the second half of the XIX century were shaped, a clearer image is created about the artistic currents and dynamics of shaping the visual culture of this period, thus establishing a firmer base for understanding the current artistic phenomena at the end of the XIX century.