Његош и слике из венецијанских збирки

Abstract

У тексту се разматра Његошев однос према сликама које је у марту 1844. године видео у венецијанским уметничким збиркама. То су дела из галерије сликара Скјавонија у Палати Ђустинијани (Palazzo Giustiniani) и угледне збирке у Палати Манфрин (Palazzo Manfrin). На основу Његошевих кратких записа у Биљежници анализира се шта је црногорски владика заиста видео, како је видео и зашто је гледао. Избор слика које помиње проистиче из његовог властитог естетског суда, али је, у великој мери, одређен и литературом коју је читао, најпре путописима и водичима по Венецији.

Njegoš’s meditations on the culture and visual culture of Venice, as well as Italy, are the product of his spiritual, poetic, national and royal identity. However, to a great extent, they are shaped by the conteporary European cultural context. Educted in European literature, guided by encyclopaedias, travelogues and guide books, Njegoš meditated on those works which the contemporary intellectual public opinion had established as artistic ideals. Based on the brief notes recorded in Njegoš’s notebook in March 1844, this text considers what the Montenegrin hierarch actually saw in Venetian collections of paintings, how he perceived what he saw and the reasons why he was looking. Njegoš visited the gallery of the painter Natale Schiavoni at the Palazo Giustiniani. Judging by his notes, the aesthetised eroticism of the Venetian pittor delle grazie, draped with the spirit of Orientalism, was very much to his liking. Njegoš also makes note of a visit to the Galleria Manfrin, at the Palazzo Manfrin. A visit to this gallery was advised by every handbook for travelers, because it was considered to be one of the best in Italy. As a jewel of particular value of this gallery, the handbooks for travelers point out large coloured drawings after Raphael’s fresco Noah and his family entering the ark from the Vatican Loggia, as well as the painting Judgment of Mida by Guido Reni. Those are the two paintings Njegoš himself records in his notebook. The reason may have been that he found them appealing for their visual beauty and their subject matter. The subject of the Flood was one of great interest for Njegoš, judging by the extensive entries from his Notebook, as well as lines from his epic The Ray of the Microcosm. A connoisseur of ancient literature, Ovid’s poetry and Platonistic philosophy, he was especially drawn to Reni’s painting. Still, we can deduce that the two paintings were mentioned first and foremost because of Njegoš’s knowledge of guidebooks and reviews of art history, which established these works and their authors as cultural models. Njegoš makes note of two other paintings, as well: Hercules fighting the Hydra by Francesco Fedeli, detto Maggiotto, and La Carità Romana by Antonio Arrigoni. In his choice of these paintings, to which he was drawn by their heroic and stoic subject, Njegoš was entirelly independent. His choice was guided by an understanding of ancient and classical literature. In his choice of paintings from Venetian collections, Njegoš followed certain rules as well as his own sense of beauty and goodness. By such choice, he is presented not only as an educated European intellectual travelling through Venice according to a suggested itinerary but also as an independent observer of Italian culture.