Re-prezentacije Crnogoraca Teodora Valerioa

Abstract

Presentations of Montenegrins created during the seventh decade of the 19 th century by the French artist Théodore Valério should be perceived in the context of the Orientalist discourse. They were created based on direct observation, however, at the same time, in accordance with the established notions the west had about the so called Orient. In Valério’s album Le Monténégro, created in 1864 after his visit to Montenegro, there is a copper etching Famille monténégrine pleurant ses morts après un combat à l’entrée du monastère de Cettigne. The initiation of Lamentationwas the background of the first developed drawing and copper etching printed according to it – presentation of a young woman conducting the Montenegrin female multitasking of the time – Gardeuse d’armes, de pipes et de berceaux à l’entrée du monastère de Cettigne Monténégro. The display of lamentation in the background of the Gardeusewas distinguished as a topic to which special attention was given both in the conceptual and in the artistic sense. Valério developed this topic in the most representative and most praised technique of oil on canvas. He displayed the canvas at the biggest public artistic arena of the time – the Paris Salon in 1865. The answer to the question of why he distinguished Valério’s topic as being special and especially suitable for public presentation is at the same time the answer to the question of professor Andrija Lainović from 1940: did Valério really see Montenegrins lamenting against the wall of the Cetinje monastery or should this be explained as “a curiosity which can be compared to Jewish lamentation against the wailing wall in Jerusalem”. Valério certainly saw Montenegrins lament and wail for those who died in battle. However, he did not see them do that against the wall of the Cetinje monastery. Lamentation, a great topic of the European myth, epic and Christian iconography gained extraordinary popularity during the 19 th century and went through outstanding aesthetisation. The west was mesmerised by presentations of lamentation of ancient and distant peoples because they shaped the desired image of a paternalistic society whose rituals offer security and bring catharsis. Valério did not directly copy the presentations of Jews in front of the wall of Solomon’s Temple. However, these helped him in creating the presentation of Lamentation because this Jewish custom was one of the exotic topics the west had discovered. This is why it can be argued that Valério created a unique construct while being lead by direct sights, romantic sentiment, established academic codes and Orientalist imaginations. The situation is similar with copper etchings Les Monténégrins se rendant au marché de Kotor – where differences between gender roles are overemphasised, and Le prêtre monténégrin en uniforme de combat, portant le drapeau de l’eglisé– where precision and imagination are also combined. Valério’s documentary and physiognomic approach – which brought him the reputation of an artist-ethnographer – was processed through the perception prism of the time of a Arcadian simple, durable and chivalrous “race”. Hence, his presentations are composites of reality and imagination, a truthful display of representatives of the Montenegrin people, but also their Orientalist re-presentation.

Special attention was given to the presentations Famille monténégrine pleurant ses morts après un combat à l’entrée du monastère de Cettigne, Les Monténégrins se rendant au marché de Kotor and Le prêtre monténégrin en uniforme de combat, portant le drapeau de l’eglisé, created during the seventh decade of 19th century by the French artist Théodore Valério. Valério’s drawings and copper etchings modelled after them, as well as aquarelles, paintings on canvas and illustrations published in popular European magazines, display Montenegrins in a truthful manner, but also in accordance with concepts shaped within the Orientalist discourse. This is why it is emphasised that these presentations must be perceived as constructions unifying the documentary precision and imagination of the Western European understanding of the so called Orient. The analysed presentations, said in the language of contemporary literary and visual theories, are representations, i.e. representations expressing a complex relation between the observed and the observer, the connection between the truthful, the presented and what is expected from the presented. Within such a methodological framework, this text strives to answer the question asked already in 1940 by a professor and once the Director of the Historical Institute of Montenegro, Andrija Lainović: did Valério really see what he presented or are these “exotic” curiosities?