10 Works, Today, June 15th, is Saint Lazar, Prince of Serbia's day, his story in Paintings #166

Uroš Predić, (1857–1953)

Prince Lazar renounces the earthly kingdom

Oil, Canvas

70cm x 90cm (27.6'' x 35.4'')

Private collection

Information on Uroš Predić is at the bottom of the post

Holy Martyr Lazar, Prince of Serbia (1389), was one of the Serbian noblemen who ruled the Serbian empire after the death of Emperor Dušan. After death of Emperor St. Uroš V 

Lazar was born in Prilepac, which is near Novo Brdo, in 1329, the son of the imperial chancellor Pribac Hrebeljanović. He was educated at Emperor Dušan's court in Prizren. 

Saint Stephen Urosh V, Emperor of Serbia

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

He was later granted the high title knez ("prince" in Serbian) by Dušan's successor St. Emperor Stefan Uroš V. Despite his imperial title, Uroš was a weak and ineffectual leader, allowing local nobles to gain power and influence at the expense of the central authority. Lazar remained a loyal vassal to Stefan Uros V.

Unnamed Romanian nun, near Oradea

St Ephrem the Syrian, c. 2005

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

After the death of the emperor, Lazar became a central figure in Serbia. He called, together with his son-in-law Đurađ Stracimirović, a synod that elected a new patriarch, Saint Ephraem. Lazar sent a delegation to Constantinople with the monk Isaiah to implore the patriarch to heal the Serbian-Constantinople Schism of 1352. In 1375, full communion between Peć and Constantinople was re-established in the Holy Archangels Monastery on the grave of Emperor Dušan.

St. Lazar restored the monasteries of Hilandar on Mount Athos and Gornjak. He built Ravanica and Lazarica in Kruševac and was a benefactor of the Russian monastery of St. Pantaleon on Mt. Athos, as well as many other churches and monasteries.

Lazar extended his domain,  Moravian Serbia, to the Danube in 1379, when the prince took Kučevo and Braničevo, ousting the Hungarian vassal Radič Branković Rastislalić from these regions. King Louis had earlier granted to Lazar the region of Mačva, or at least a part of it.

Unknown serbian painter

Milica Hrebeljanović, c. 1402-1405

Fresco

Ljubostinja monastery, near Trstenik, Serbia

Lazar's widow, Milica, ruled as regent for their adolescent son Stefan Lazarević. Lazar's successor, accepted Ottoman suzerainty in the summer of 1390.

Of all the Serbian lands, Lazar's state lay furthest from Ottoman centres, and was least exposed to the ravages of Turkish raiding parties. This circumstance attracted immigrants from Turkish-threatened areas, who built new villages and hamlets in previously poorly inhabited and uncultivated areas of Moravian Serbia.

The strategic position of the Morava basins contributed to Lazar's prestige and political influence in the Balkans due to the anticipated Turkish offensives.

A Turkish raiding party, passing unobstructed through territories of Ottoman vassals, broke into Moravian Serbia in 1381. It was routed by Lazar's nobles in the Battle of Dubravnica. In 1386, the Ottoman Sultan Murad I himself led much larger forces that took Niš from Lazar.

Adam Stefanović,  (1832–1887)

Knez Lazar's night before the Battle of Kosovo, dated 1871, by Adam Stefanović

The National Museum

Adam Stefanović (27 November 1832 – 6 May 1887) was a Serbian lithographer and painter. Together with Pavle Čortanović, he authored illustrations of the Kosovo Cyclus (of Serbian epic poetry).

Stefanović was born in Perlez, Austrian Empire (now Serbia). He was educated at the University of Munich in 1867, and then at the University of Vienna.


He lived in Pančevo in the 1870s, where he published his lithographs with Čortanović. More on Adam Stefanović

John Young

Amurat Kahn I, c. 1815

Mezzotint, hand-colored with brush and watercolor, on ivory wove paper

375 × 253 mm

Art Institute of Chicago

John Young (1755–1825), mezzotint engraver and keeper of the British Institution. He became a very able engraver, working exclusively in mezzotint, and executed about eighty portraits of contemporary personages. In 1789 he was appointed mezzotint engraver to the Prince of Wales. In 1813 Young succeeded Valentine Green in the keepership of the British Institution, an arduous post which he filled with unfailing tact and efficiency until his death. He was honorary secretary of the Artists' Benevolent Fund from 1810 to 1813, and then transferred his services in the same capacity to the rival body, the Artists' General Benevolent Institution. 

He died at his house in Upper Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square, London, on 7 March 1825. Young published in 1815 "Portraits of the Emperors of Turkey from the Foundation of the Monarchy to the year 1808", thirty plates printed in colours, with English and French text; and between 1821 and 1825 a series of catalogues, illustrated with etchings by himself, of the Grosvenor, Leicester, Miles, Angerstein, and Stafford galleries. More on John Young

Lazar fought against the Turkish powers on several occasions in order to protect his people. Finally, he fought the Turkish Emperor Amurat and lost on the Field of Blackbirds on June 15, 1389. 

Adam Stefanović  (1832–1887)

Battle of Kosovo, c. 1870

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

Peter Radicevic

Battle of Kosovo painting, c. 1987

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

The Battle of Kosovo was the most famous battle in Serbia's medieval history. In the fierce fighting and mutual heavy losses, both Prince Lazar and Sultan Murad lost their lives. More on Holy Martyr Lazar, Prince of Serbia

Petar Lubarda

Kosovo Battle, c. 1953 

Ceremonial Hall Novi Dvor Belgrade

Petar Lubarda (27 July 1907 – 13 February 1974) was a Serbian and Yugoslav painter.

He was born in the Principality of Montenegro. Lubarda's father was an officer of the Royal Yugoslav Army who was killed by the Yugoslav Partisans, which left a mark on Lubarda's career and upbringing. He spent a part of the war years in a German prison camp. Lubarda self-declared as a Serb and sent a letter demanding that this information be included as a part of his biography in upcoming art catalogues as well as demanding that his work be presented as a part of Serbia's pavilion.

He studied painting in Belgrade and Paris. From 1932 until his death he lived in Belgrade, with exception of period 1946–1950 when he was a professor at an art school in Herceg Novi.[7] His work is inspired by Serbian history and Montenegrin landscape.

His most preferred subject was the historic 1389 Battle of Kosovo, which Lubarda painted in various formats in more than 30 versions. More on Petar Lubarda 

Uroš Predić, (1857–1953)

Kosovo Maiden, c. 1919

Oil on canvas

Belgrade City Museum

The Kosovo Maiden of the Blackbird Field is the central figure of a poem. In it, a young beauty searches the battlefield for her betrothed husband and helps wounded Serbian warriors with water, wine and bread after the Battle of Kosovo. She finally finds the wounded and dying warrior Pavle Orlović who tells her that her fiancé Milan Toplica are dead. Before the battle they had given her a cloak, golden ring and veil for the wedding as a promise of safe return. More on Kosovo Maiden

Uroš Predić (December 1857 – Belgrade, 12 February 1953) was a Serbian Realist painter. Predić is perhaps best known for his early works depicting ordinary peoples, as well as his many portraits.

He attended primary school in Crepaja. He went to Vienna to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1876. He graduated in 1880 In 1882, he worked in the private studio of professor Grieppenkerl, and in the period from 1883 to 1885 he was an assistant professor at the Department of Antiquity at the Art academy in Vienna. During that time he painted 13 wall paintings of ancient, historical and mythological compositions for the frieze in the House of Lords at Reichsratsgebäude, in Vienna.

The first exhibition of his paintings was in 1888 in Belgrade. He was elected to the group of painters who are represent Serbia at the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris. Although the French criticism did not recognize his work Predić, will become very popular in the impoverished Serbia. Especially because of his sense of humor present in some works. 


He was one of the founders of the "Lada" society in 1904, and became its president. He was elected as associate member of the Serbian Royal Academy on 26 January 1909, and on 3 February 1910 as a regular member. He was one of the founders of the Society of painters in Belgrade in 1919, and was its first president. Uroš Predić painted the icons for the Bečej orthodox church, and the icons for the chapel of Bogdan Dunđerski. He died in 1953 in Belgrade, at the age of 95. He was buried in Orlovat. More on Uroš Predić

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