Oltarska pregrada crkve Svetog Nikole u Sremskoj Kamenici

Abstract

Gradnja crkve Rođenja Bogorodice u Sremskoj Kamenici započela je 1737. godine ktitorstvom Živana Crnogorca, protoprezvitera karlovačkog, i nastojanijem Dime Kostića, karlovačkog trgovca, i njegove supruge Ane. Oltarska pregrada, koja je završena 1752-1753. godine, posle četrdeset godina zamenjena je novom. U tefterima hrama je zapisano da su ikonostas i pevnice 1793. godine naručeni od duboresca Marka Vujatovića, žitelja futoškog. Za oslikavanje i pozlaćivanje oltarske pregrade crkvena opština je angažovala braću Stefana Gavrilovića, slikara, i Iliju Gavrilovića, pozlatara. Raspored je izveden u duhu razvoja ikonostasa kao više-spratne oltarske pregrade. Izrazitim horizontalama podeljen je u tri zone, ali u perforaciji i obliku medaljona jasno su izražena nova shvatanja. Celokupni program kameničke oltarske pregrade crkve Rođenja Bogorodice, razvijan od sokla u pristupnoj zoni, preko carskih dveri zaključno sa Raspećem, scenama Stradanja i prorocima, na završnici, iskazuje jasnu liturgijsku namenu i ukazuje na žrtveni karakter bogosluženja. Slikani repertoar svedoči o punoj pobedi zapadnjačke orijentacije u srpskom slikarstvu. Ne samo ikonografski već i stilski, Gavrilović je uključen u one tokove srpske umetnosti koji su naše majstore nezadrživo vodili do novih podsticaja i uzora.

The building of a Serbian Orthodox church dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin in Sremska Kamenica, in the place of the former church of the Presentation of the Virgin, started in 1737 through the endowment of Živan Crnogorac, protopresbyter of Karlovac and through the efforts of Dima Kostić, a merchant from Karlovac, and his wife Ana. From the inscription carved into the stone slab on the West side of the belfry we can learn that the period until 1745 constituted the first phase of the construction of this monumental edifice. The second phase took place until the consecration of the church on 8 September 1749 when it got a Baroque belfry, floor and windows. The third phase, which entailed building of additional elements and decorating of the church, started in 1751 after the death of the endower and it took a very long time on account of the lack of funds. The sanctuary screen that was completed in 1752-1753 was replaced by a new one after forty years. The records of the church state that the iconostasis and the choirs were ordered in 1793 from woodcarver Marko Vujatović, a resident of Futog. As for the painting and gilding of the sanctuary screen, the church community hired brothers Stefan Gabrilović, painter, and Ilija Gavrilović, gilder. While he was still finishing his assignments of a somewhat smaller scope, in Neštin, Stefan Gavrilović signed a contract on 27 August 1800 on the painting work at the church in Kamenica. The contract was of exceptional importance, because it was the first independent contract which Stefan Gavrilović signed for such a big assignment. The distribution was done in the spirit of the development of the iconostasis as a multi-storey sanctuary screen. With pronounced horizontals, it was divided into three zones, but the new views were clearly expressed in the perforation and shape of the medallion. The overall programme of the sanctuary screen in the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin in Kamenica developed from the socle in the access zone, through the Royal Doors, all the way through to the Crucifixion, scenes of the Passion and prophets in the end, shows a clear liturgical purpose and points at the sacrificial character of the worship. The visualised eucharistology was developed along the central vertical axis. The compositions of Annunciation, Last Supper, Holy Trinity and the Crucifixion of Christ were positioned as the spiritual pillar. The painted repertoire testifies to the complete victory of the western orientation in the Serbian painting. Not only iconographically, but also in terms of the style, Gavrilović was involved in those trends in the Serbian art that insuppressibly led our masters to new incentives and paragons. When creating the sanctuary screen in Sremska Kamenica, he mostly relied on the graphic solutions from the rococo-style Bible by Philip Andreas Kilian. By analysing the iconostasis of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin in Sremska Kamenica we may notice that in addition to the influences of the neoclassicistic views, Stefan Gavrilović remained consistently tied to the late Baroque tradition. The sanctuary screen in Sremska Kamenica made by Gavrilović shows that he was familiar by the opus of Jakov Orfelin with whom we had worked at the parish church in the village of Jarak, as well as the works of the older Teodor Kračun, whose sanctuary screen in Neštin he himself cleaned and additionally painted. The contemporary interpretations of church wall paintings found their place in this work of Stefan Gavrilović who will, under the influence of the ideas of the Enlightenment, interpret the old testament and the new testament topics increasingly more consistently within the scope of historic painting. Despite all of the bad sides of Gavrilović's drawings, beside all the borrowings, unusual features and the weakness of the colour scheme, the sanctuary screen in Sremska Kamenica constitutes a fine example of the unity of woodcarving forms and painting programme. It constitutes a joint aspiration of the woodcarver and the painter to render the liturgical rite a sense of grandeur and to supplement it with visually determined interior which has been clearly formulated in terms of its programme and in which each piece of the furnishing and equipment has its clear purpose.