07 works, Today, December 2nd, is Stefan Uroš IV Dušan's day, his story, illustrated #335

Unknown artist

Tsar Stefan Dusan

Fresco

Decani monastery, Deçan, Kosovo

Stefan Uroš IV Dušan, known as Dušan the Mighty (circa 1308 – 20 December 1355), was the King of Serbia from 8 September 1331 and Tsar and autocrat of the Serbs and Greeks from 16 April 1346 until his death. He enacted the constitution of the Serbian Empire, known as Dušan's Code, perhaps the most important literary work of medieval Serbia.

Paja Jovanović (1859–1957)

The Proclamation of Dušan's Law Codex, c. 1900

Oil on canvas

390x589 cm

National Museum of Serbia

For Paja Jovanović, see below

Unknown artist

 Stefan Uroš III Dečanski of Serbia

I have no further description, at this time

Dušan was the eldest son of King Stefan Dečanski and Theodora Smilets, the daughter of emperor Smilets of Bulgaria. He was born circa 1308, or in 1312 in Serbia, but with the exile Dušan's father in 1314, the family lived in Constantinople until 1320, when his father was allowed to return. In Constantinople he learned Greek, gained an understanding of Byzantine life and culture, and became acquainted with the Byzantine Empire. 

He took a lot interest in arts of war; in his youth he fought exceptionally in two battles: in 1329 he defeated the ban Stephen II Kotromanić during the War of Hum, and in 1330 the Bulgarian emperor Michael III Shishman in the Battle of Velbužd. Dečanski appointed his nephew Ivan Stephen to the throne of Bulgaria in August 1330.

Dečanski's decision not to attack the Byzantines after the victory at Velbazhd, when he had an opportunity, resulted in the alienation of many nobles, who sought to expand to the south. By January or February 1331, 

Advisors turned Dečanski against his son, Dušan, and he decided to seize and exclude Dušan from his inheritance. Dečanski sent an army into Zeta against his son; the army ravaged Shkodër, but Dušan had crossed the Bojana river. A brief period of anarchy took place in parts of Serbia before father and son concluded peace in April 1331. 

XIV century Serbian painter

 Stefan Dečanski and Dušan with church model, middle of XIV century

Fresco

Visoki Dečani Monastry, Serbia

Three months later, Dečanski ordered Dušan to meet him. Dušan feared for his life and his advisors persuaded him to resist, so Dušan marched from Skadar to Nerodimlje, where he besieged his father. Dečanski fled, and Dušan captured the treasury and family. He then pursued his father, catching up with him at Petrich. On 21 August 1331 Dečanski surrendered, and on the advice or insistence of Dušan's advisors, he was imprisoned. Dušan was crowned King of All Serbian and Maritime lands in the first week of September.

The civil war had prevented Serbia from aiding Ivan Stephen and Anna Neda in Bulgaria, who were deposed in March 1331, taking refuge in the mountains. Emperor Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria feared Serbia, as the situation there had settled, and he immediately sought peace with Dušan. 

Paja Jovanović

Wedding of Emperor Dušan", c. 1904

National Museum, Belgrade

Paja Jovanović was born in Vršac, on June 4, 1859. He had the opportunity to see the iconostasis of Pavel Đurković and Arsa Teodorović in the town churches, as well as the works of Jovan Popović. His father took him to Vienna in 1875 when he was 15, where he enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts in 1877. He finished the Academy of Fine Arts in 1880. In the following period he painted mostly scenes from the life of the Albanians, Montenegrins, and Herzegovinians, which brought him great reputation. In 1882 he was awarded the prize of the Academy and was given the czar scholarship for composition.

He continued his travelling through Caucasus, Morocco, Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Italy, and Spain. A great number of sketches, notes, and studies, along with the collected objects from the life of the common people, will find their place in his famous genre-compositions.

As early as in 1893 he was proclaimed for the member of the Serbian Royal Academy. He was given the task to make monumental historical compositions. After 1905 he devoted himself exclusively to painting the portraits for his rich clientele. 

He made the iconostasis in the "Dolovo" and "Saborna" churches in Novi Sad, which was painted without commission. He spent most of his time in his atelier in Vienna where he settled, and occasionally travelled to Belgrade. In 1940 he was given the title of the honorary citizen of Vršac, and in 1949 he was given the Order "zasluga za narod" of the first category. He lived quietly and lonely, after his wife's early death. More on Paja Jovanović

As Dušan wanted to move against richer Byzantium, the two made peace and an alliance in December 1331. It was sealed with the marriage of Dušan and Helena of Bulgaria, Empress of Serbia, the sister of tsar Ivan Alexander.

Dušan began to fight against the Byzantine Empire in 1334, and warfare continued with interruptions of various duration until his death in 1355. Twice he became involved in larger conflicts with the Hungarians, but these clashes were mostly defensive. Dušan then focused his attention on the internal affairs of his country, writing, in 1349, the first statute book of the Serbs.

To the west, Dušan scored victories over Hungarian leader Louis the Great that gave him eastern half of modern Bosnia. Dušan was also successful against Louis' vassals: he defeated the armies of the Croatian ban and the forces of Hungarian voivodes. He was at peace with tsar Ivan Alexander Bulgaria, who even helped him on several occasions, and he is said to have visited Ivan Alexander at his capital. Serbia became temporarily dominant state between 1331 and 1365.

Dušan exploited the civil war in the Byzantine Empire between the regent of the minor Emperor John V Palaiologos, Anna of Savoy, and his father's general John Kantakouzenos. Dušan and Ivan Alexander picked opposite sides in the conflict but remained at peace with each other, taking advantage of the Byzantine civil war to secure gains for themselves.

Unknown artist

Serb victory over the Byzantines in a mountain pass

Illustrated manuscript of John Skilitsa. XIII century.

The Madrid Skylitzes is a richly illustrated illuminated manuscript of the Synopsis of Histories, by John Skylitzes, which covers the reigns of the Byzantine emperors from the death of Nicephorus I in 811 to the deposition of Michael VI in 1057. 

Dušan's systematic offensive against the Byzantines began in 1342, and in the end he conquered all Byzantine territories in the western Balkans. In May 1344, his commander Preljub was stopped at Stephaniana by a Turkic force of 3,100. The Turks won the battle, but the victory was not enough to thwart the Serbian conquest of Macedonia. Faced with Dušan's aggression, the Byzantines sought allies in the Ottoman Turks, whom they brought into Europe for the first time.

Alphonse Mucha  (1860–1939)

The coronation of the Serbian Tsar Stefan Dušan as East Roman Emperor, c. 1926

Oil on canvas

480 × 405 cm (15.7 × 13.2 ft)

Mucha Museum Prague

Alfons Maria Mucha (24 July 1860 – 14 July 1939), known internationally as Alphonse Mucha, was a Czech painter, illustrator and graphic artist, living in Paris during the Art Nouveau period, best known for his distinctly stylized and decorative theatrical posters, particularly those of Sarah Bernhardt. He produced illustrations, advertisements, decorative panels, and designs, which became among the best-known images of the period.

In the second part of his career, at the age of 43, he returned to his homeland of Bohemia-Moravia region in Austria and devoted himself to painting a series of twenty monumental canvases known as The Slav Epic, depicting the history of all the Slavic peoples of the world, which he painted between 1912 and 1926. In 1928, on the 10th anniversary of the independence of Czechoslovakia, he presented the series to the Czech nation. He considered it his most important work. It is now on display in Prague. More on Alfons Maria Mucha

In 1343, Dušan added Romans/Greeks to his self-styled title "King of Serbia, Albania and the coast". In 1345 he began calling himself tsar, equivalent of Emperor, as attested in charters to two athonite monasteries, one from November 1345 and the other from January 1346, and around Christmas 1345 at a council meeting in Serres, which was conquered on 25 September 1345, he proclaimed himself "Tsar of the Serbs and Romans" 

His premature death created a large power vacuum in the Balkans, that ultimately enabled Turkish invasion and Turkish rule until the early 20th century. While mounting a crusade against the Turks, he fell ill (possibly poisoned) and died of a fever at Devoll on 20 December 1355. He was buried in his foundation, the Monastery of the Holy Archangels near Prizren. More on Stefan Uroš IV Dušan

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