Između samoinscenacije i prezentacije - portret kraljice Natalije Obrenović

Abstract

U tekstu se analizira portret kraljice Natalije. Portret je nastao 1890. i delo je slikara Uroša Predića. Slikana predstava se proučava sa više aspekata, što za posledicu ima definisanje portreta kao simbola koji prevashodno određuje kraljicu Nataliju kao ideatora predstave. Pažljivom režijom svoga lika i enterijera (budoar) u kome je pozirala Prediću, kraljica je markirala portret kao vizuelizaciju svoje ličnosti u trenutku slikanja. Želeći da se dopadne javnom mnjenju, ona je istovremeno kreirala sliku po diktatu javnosti, na taj način determinišuću sopstveni imidž. Budoar u kome je slikana, u celosti, a i preko brojnih pratećih elemenata, postao je identitetski označitelj ličnosti kraljice Natalije. Istovremeno je isticanjem haljine kraljica označila važnost mode u datom vremenu, i tako konstituisala svoje modno telo. Takođe je slikar umetničkim sredstvima, kao i svojim senzibilitetom, ostavio ličan pečat na platnu. Na taj način vladarka i slikar su posredno mapirali prostor i vreme u kome je slika nastala. Oni su paradigmatski predstavili političku i umetničku klimu, kao i rodnu diferencijaciju tog perioda u Srbiji.

The portrait of queen Natalija is the work of painter Uroš Predić from 1890, which was painted in a complex political moment. At that time the queen was a prisoner in Belgrade because she was out of favor of her former husband king Milan. She was staying in a house which belonged to her lady-in-waiting and could not move about freely. She was painted by the painter in that very space, inside her boudoir. The queen's intimate space became a public domain of the queen's symbolic presence via that painting. The careful staging of accessories in the interior enabled the queen to visually show her own identity. Thus, a typical interior in the period of historism became a metaphor of various identities of the queen by the means of peripheral elements. Her Russian ethnic origin, her cultural Francophile inclination as well as the sought Serbian identity used peripheral elements to construct the symbolism of the queen's boudoir. Gender symbolism serving as a political message was supposed to provide the favor of the public opinion via the painting for the purpose of the queen's political legitimization. Simultaneously the queen indicated the pure aestheticity of her own self. Culturally codified in relation to Paris, the queen became a fashion icon in Belgrade at the end of the 19th century. Due to her fine taste she became a living sign of haute couture in Serbia and gender awareness for women in Serbia. By becoming the object of comparison of Belgrade ladies the queen became the identification pattern of the female collective body of that period. That is how she presented herself to the painter who painted her portrait. Her fashion body became a metaphor of her femininity and the symbol of a refined feeling. Besides her superior perishable body and imperishable ruling body, she constituted her third body, that of fashion. Her clothes became her body, the ruling image of the desired play. By varying her gender and political identity the queen became the director of her visual play which was immortalized by Predić. Thus she pointed to her gender status which she used to create herself as a subject who creates her own picture leaving aside the possibility of seeing herself within a gender indifferent objectification.