Byzantine frescoes from Yugoslav churches

by David Talbot Rice (Preface)

These frescoes from the medieval churches of Yugoslavia were painted between the 11th and the 15th centuries. At the beginning of this period Serbia was a province of the Byzantine Empire, and many of the paintings are the work of Byzantine craftsmen. But during the next two centuries there appears a native Serbian school of painting.

As Byzantine influences waned, so the emotional qualities of reverence, sorrow and love become more apparent. The Serbian frescoes possess a beauty of line and colour and an intensity of religious feeling which places them among the great masterpieces of medieval art.

Genres: Art

30 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

David Talbot Rice CBE (11 July 1903 in Rugby – 12 March 1972 in Cheltenham) was an English art historian. His father was "Talbot-Rice" and both he and his wife published using "Talbot Rice" as a surname, but are also sometimes found under "Rice" alone, or "Talbot-Rice".

Born in Rugby and brought up in Gloucestershire (England), he was educated at Eton prior to reading archaeology and anthropology at Christ Church, Oxford.[1] At Oxford his circle of friends included Evelyn Waugh and Harold Acton as well as his future wife (Elena) Tamara Abelson (1904–1993) whom he was to marry in 1927. She was a Russian émigrée, who was also an art historian, writing on Byzantine and Central Eastern art and other subjects as Tamara Talbot Rice.

Following his graduation, Talbot Rice undertook a number of archaeological digs overseas and developed a passion for all things Byzantine. His expertise in the area of Islamic art was recognised when, in 1932, Samuel Courtauld endowed the Courtauld Institute at the University of London and Talbot Rice was among the first appointments, taking up a position as lecturer.

Talbot Rice was subsequently appointed to the Watson Gordon Chair of Fine Art at the University of Edinburgh in 1934, a post he held until his death in 1972. In 1937 he gave the Ilchester Lecture, later published as The Beginnings of Russian Icon Painting.

During the Second World War Talbot Rice served with modest distinction as Head of the Near East Section of Military Intelligence (MI3b), which was responsible for Eastern Europe including Yugoslavia but excluding Russia and Scandinavia. Originally commissioned onto the Special List in 1939, he transferred to the Intelligence Corps in 1943. He ended the war with the rank of Major.

When peacetime returned he came back to Scotland and established an Honours degree at the University which combined art history and studio art and is still offered today. His ambition to establish an arts centre in the University was realised posthumously when the Talbot Rice Gallery was founded and named after him.

From 1952 to 1954, he led the excavations of the Great Palace of Constantinople in Istanbul, Turkey.

Reviews

[Jan-Maat]

Just a brochure really, small format colour illustrations of highlights from medieval frescos from Serbia and Macedonia with a very brief introduction from David Talbot Rice. He divides the frescos into three groups: those done earliest and in his view most strongly under the influence of Byzantium of which paintings in the Church of saint Sophia, Ochrid (Macedonia) are his exemplar, a late phase in which in his view the frescoes are close to 'peasant' art, this isn't defined nor does he mention examples to illustrate what he means and in the middle there is a period when it is possible that the frescoes were made by local artists working to a high standard but who produced a distinct local style which was more expressive and emotional than the earliest frescoes, of these he rates the work in Mileševa as the best. He fears however that Mileševa was constructed too close to the Adriatic and shows worrying signs of the influence of western Christian Art but such influences do not sweep further eastwards.

The worst preserved of these frescoes are in churches which remained open to Christian worship, the best in those which were converted in to mosques as there the frescoes were plastered over which preserved them from the light, smoke, bats, over enthusiastic restoration and so on. Demonstrating the eternal battle between faith and its products.

What I felt was lacking from this booklet was how these particular frescos and, I guess the monasteries they were found in, came to international attention and to receive UNESCO status and what that means for the on going preservation of the sites. Particularly in the light of the negative affects of actual worship or day to day worship taking place near the frescoes.

Because of the small format of this book, although most of the fresco illustrations are in colour, one is better off referring to Art of the Byzantine Era for clearer reproductions even if those ones are in black and white.

[Theabbey abbey]

"Little book done under United Nations funding; loaded with photos, some color; text in German; a survey of frescos that were felt to be endangered".