Jewelry

In his preface to the best-known medieval handbook on artistic technique, the Western monk Theophilus (ca.1110–40) specifically associates color with the Greeks. This 12th-C. notice is late witness to a tradition reverting to the 3rd or 4th C., when niello seems first to have been applied to gold and silver. But the association of gems and ornament with Byz. in the Western mind persisted at least down to the time when German envoys to Constantinople in 1196 pointed out that they were not “worshipers of ornaments and garments secured by brooches suited only for women” (Nik.Chon. 477.82–83).

Our knowledge of Byz. jewelry comes from examples found in treasures, accounts of items that have not survived, and illustrations in mosaics, painting, textiles, metalwork, and MS illumination. The procession of female saints in the mosaics of S. Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, shows matching sets of hair ornament, earrings, necklace, bracelet, rings, and belt fittings. Gold plaques and gems were sewn on clothing, and antique coins were incorporated into other items of personal adornment. The importance of precious stones is indicated by their frequent imitation in the borders of miniatures in MSS and on mosaic pavements and wall panels as much as by the jeweled walls in depictions of the heavenly cities of Bethlehem and Jerusalem, and gemencrusted thrones, crosses, liturgical vessels, and book covers.

Byz. jewelry is further characterized by the extensive use of Christian iconography and sacred objects, worn thus for protection as well as ornament. These pieces could incorporate an inscription or symbol, an image, a cross or Christogram, or be carried in an enkolpion, an invention of the Byz. Jewelry was not only an outward symbol of faith or wealth but also served as a badge of office. Special Fibulae, rings, and belt buckles, awarded by the emperor and often inscribed, indicated status within the civil service or the army. Belisarios rewarded his soldiers with armbands and torques (Prokopios, Wars 7.1.8). Jewelry was also made to adorn and protect animals. Floor mosaics show race horses wearing jeweled trappings and hunting dogs with gem-studded collars. Apotropaic devices (e.g., ivy leaf, swastika, sunburst, crescent) as well as Christian symbols decorate charms and amulets worn by animals.

A great variety of techniques was used in the manufacture of jewelry. Gemstones were mainly polished. They might then be drilled and/or carved as a cameo or engraved as a seal. Metal might be cast or worked in repoussé, then have added niello, enamel, or engraving, or be cut into opus interrasile. It could also be made into a simple wire, which was worked as filigree or drawn through successively smaller holes in a wooden or metal board. This wire was used in fine gold work and incorporated into textiles.

While members of the imperial court adorned themselves with crowns, necklaces, great ropes of pearls, and large gems, ordinary people also had access to the work of jewelers. Their products, known from archaeological excavation, were usually made of gilded bronze imitating gold or had colored glass paste simulating gems in rings and earrings. Bracelets in this category tend to be fairly plain; there are surprisingly few traces of necklaces, with the exception of fragments of chain and ornaments, such as amulets or crosses, that may have been suspended on the chain. Glass bracelets—a form of jewelry probably invented for the mass market in Roman times or intended as a substitute for ivory or precious metal—are found in large numbers, sometimes in contexts that suggest local manufacture.

Because of the mixture of styles in many pieces, dating is often hard to establish. Gems were often set into a new ring or even recarved. Antique coins included in jewelry provide only a terminus post quem for dating. An inscription on an item often helps, as may controlled excavation. Representations of jewelry in datable works of art can also provide a base for comparison.

In very broad, general terms, the evolution of Byz. jewelry was from simple to complex, from light to heavy, from small to large, but these criteria must be applied with care. Earrings started out in the 4th C. as simple hoops and, by the 10th–12th C., were open filigree work with multiple projections in a three-dimensional form. They were complex but light. Bracelets changed from narrow, solid, or cutwork bands to wide, hinged bands, sometimes worked in repoussé. Necklaces developed from simple chains or strands of beads, made of polished and drilled stones and pearls, to more complex forms with multiple hanging elements. Early gold and silver gem-mounts were made in an openwork technique; by the 11th–12th C. they were solid and rather heavy in appearance. In all cases, however, the combination of influences listed above must be studied along with techniques used in cutting stones by wheel or burin, types of enamel, working of metal (e.g., cast, opus interrasile, granulation), and methods of working links in a chain. The study of this technology is still at a very early stage. When sufficient context is lacking, as is often the case with “mass-produced” work—the so-called costume jewelry of gilded bronze and glass—one can only try to fit such pieces as far as possible into this general typology.

Church

Administration of the church was based on patristic texts and the canons of ecumenical and local councils, codified beginning in the 6th C. and regularized in the Nomokanon of Fifty Titles. The Byz. church did not have a single head, rejecting the idea of papal primacy, but embraced the concept of pentarchy in which patriarchs and the pope maintained administrative control of their individual territory. In fact, the loss of the East to the Arabs in the 7th C. and the separation of the West made the patriarch of Constantinople the de facto head of the Byz. church. The Byz. defended the concept that the authority of the council was superior to the power of the patriarch; in an extreme form, an anonymous treatise of the 10th C. tried to justify the superiority of an assembly of metropolitans over the patriarch of Constantinople (Darrouzès, infra 24–29). On the contrary, Niketas of Amaseia defended the thesis that the patriarch was the supreme arbiter in the ecclesiastical sphere. With regard to the state, theoreticians insisted that the church was superior to the civil administration (e.g., John Chrysostom, PG 61:507.42–43), in contrast to the attempt of the state to treat the emperor as the supervisor (“bishop”) of the church’s external affairs. The author of the Epanagoge presented the theory of two equal powers, that of the emperor, who deals with material matters, and that of the patriarch, responsible for mankind’s spiritual health and salvation. In practice, however, civil administration usually had the upper hand over the church.

As an institution, the church possessed an established organization based on a hierarchy of rank (bishop, priest, deacon, etc.), on administrative gradations (patriarchate-metropolis-bishopric, etc.), on regular assemblies (councils), and on the system of ecclesiastical officials. Its privileges included a special canon law distinct from civil law, and various exemptions for the clergy. The church obtained jurisdiction over the clergy and in some matters over the laity. Its material basis consisted of the ownership of land, imperial grants ( solemnia), movable property (esp. liturgical vessels and vestments), and voluntary donations and bequests; the mandatory tithe was a relatively late innovation. Ecclesiastical property was in theory inalienable, and attempts to confiscate it aroused serious conflicts (e.g., the case of Leo of Chalcedon).

Being a holy body, the church could expel sinful members, both temporarily and permanently (by means of excommunication). Missions expanded the church’s influence by spreading Christianity to new territories, baptizing heathens and heretics, and converting Jews and Muslims. The Byz. church had no monopoly on education, but it obtained supervision over teaching and offered episcopal posts to many outstanding scholars. Its means of salvation were challenged by some mystics who, like Symeon the Theologian, considered the individual path of vision of the divine light as superior to the activity of the institutionalized church. The political role of individual bishops was significant in secular affairs, but the influence of episcopal organization had to compete with monasteries (see Monasticism) that often managed to obtain independence from local bishops ( stauropegion) and even from the patriarch.

Ecclesiology (ἐκκλησιολογία), a modern term to designate the study of the nature of the church. In Greek patristic literature and Byz. apologetic and dogmatic surveys, the church was never an object of systematic theological speculation. This lack of ecclesiological development, however, was not deliberate for the church was ultimately the context of all theology, the presupposition of all theological speculation. Besides, the church as a sociological phenomenon, as a visible institution with its own administrative structure and unity within the framework of the empire, was frequently the object of conciliar and imperial legislation. Texts such as the Nomokanon of Fourteen Titles, the Epanagoge with its theory of the two powers, and the canonical corpus of the Council in Trullo are in fact a rich source of information on church structure, discipline, and ecclesiological ideas. Equally, practical problems generated by canon law, such as the relationship between ecclesiastical and imperial legislation, were often the object of debate by canonists (cf. Balsamon, PG 104:981B–C).

In addition, from the 11th C. various authors dealt extensively with such issues as the prerogatives of a metropolitan and his relationship to the patriarch, right of appeal, celibacy, the functions of the patriarch as president of the synod, canonical questions raised by the Arsenite schism, and episcopal or clerical elections, depositions, ordinations, and resignations. Another essentially ecclesiological problem was of course the debate over primacy (cf. pentarchy). The church’s understanding of itself as an institution did not, however, emphasize structure or juridical categories exclusively, for these, it was realized, could never adequately exhaust or define the ultimate reality of the church as a divine and earthly community.

The central place in the first room on the second storey belongs to the mosaic icon of the Virgin Hodege-tria dating from the end of the 12th century (38 x 57 cm). The only surviving Chilandar icon executed in this tech­nique was obtained from Constantinople, or, perhaps, Thessaloniki, in the period when St Sava of Serbia and Simeon Nemanja founded the monastery. The dignified image of the Virgin with large eyes, and the effigy of the infant Christ, minutely executed against the background of gold mosaic cubes, echo the features of monumental wall-paintings.

Two icons of Christ and the Virgin, dating from the third quarter of the 13th century, which probably stood on the old iconostasis in the main church, are amongst the oldest examples of icon painting in Chilandar. The grave image of Christ and the refined, gentle expression of the Virgin bear close resemblance to Sopocani frescoes, so that they are dated on the basis of them. The exception­ally noble and sophisticated representation of the Virgin with the infant Christ undoubtedly ranks among the most beautiful examples of icon-painting in Byzantium and thirteenth-century painting in Europe. Roughly in the same period, in the second half of the 13th century, a painted staurotheke came into existence, formerly treasur­ing a fragment of the holy cross. The busts of two angels and the almost destroyed representations of the Emperor Constantine and the Empress Helen with their complex­ions painted in an exaggerated green hue, do not equal the icons of Christ and the Virgin in beauty. The icon of St Panteleimon from the beginning of the 14th century is typical of the epoch in which one conception is being replaced by another. The work of an experienced artist, the icon is almost a paragon of stylistic strictness and deliberate simplification of forms.

At the beginning of the 14th century, the icon of the Presentation of the Virgin into the Temple, to whose feast the church is dedicated, was produced for the iconostasis of Milutin’s church. The old theme was icono-graphically refreshed through the introduction of new details in the description of the setting, and seven maid­ens from the Virgin’s entourage vividly recall their classical paragons.

A considerable number of icons from the second half of the 14th century have survived in Chilandar. Ten icons from around 1360 formerly adorning the iconostasis of the main church are especially valuable. They made up a somewhat abridged Deesis (62 to 74 cm in width, 98 cm in height), from which the icon of Christ is missing today. Of monumental dimensions and character, of subtle colour­ing, aiming to produce clearly delineated characters of individual figures, these icons rank among significant accomplishments of that epoch. The icon of the Presenta­tion of the Virgin from the main church, on the reverse

face of the Virgin of the Priest, is attributed to one of the two masters whose names remained unknown.

Almost at the same time, in the third quarter of the 14th century, the icon of John the Forerunner (71 x 103 cm) was created, typified by a greatly simplified painting technique. Depicting the image of the famous hermit on a gold background, the anonymous painter abandoned vividness of colours in order to accentuate rich inner life.

In all probability, all the aforementioned icons are the works of Greek masters, coming chiefly from Thessaloni-ki or the broader hinterland of Mount Athos. In this peri­od, Serbian artists seem to have rarely come to Chilandar to paint. Only one procession icon from the third quarter of the 14th century appears to be the creation of a Ser­bian icon-painter. Its face depicts the image of the Virgin of the special iconographic type of the Impregnable Rock, and its reverse side displays a bust of a bishop, per­haps of St Sava of Serbia, almost completely destroyed. Its Serbian origin is indicated by Serbian inscriptions, by a cruder painting technique and less refined colouring, as well as by the strength of expression.

The small icon of the Five Martyrs (Eustratios, Aux-entios, Eugenios, Mardarios and Orestes) was painted at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries. The meticulous treatment of complexions, hands, the harmony of compo­sition, warm colours and the manner of lighting, point to the epoch on the eve of the fall of Greek and Serbian lands under Turkish rule.

Two small icons are displayed in a glass showcase in the first, larger, chamber on the second storey. The first (25 x 29 cm) conveys to us the life of Mary the Egyptian. The entire turbulent life of the sinner, and subsequently saint, is narrated in fourteen continuos, undivided pic­tures arranged in four rows. Painted like a miniature with emphasized narrative quality, the small icon most proba­bly dates from the mid-14th century. The icon of even smaller dimensions (19 x 27 cm), depicting, as it seems, St loannicios the Great, is half a century younger. The figure of the renowned hermit against a gold background, and his face in particular, are meticulously painted, colours are muted but skillfully harmonized.

The second, smaller, chamber on the second floor chiefly displays icons produced in the period from the 16th to 18th centuries. Just as there are no surviving six­teenth-century frescoes in Chilandar, icons from that epoch are likewise rare. The large icon from 1575 featur­ing the Presentation of the Virgin into the Temple, the feast day celebrated by the church, was a gift of the Patri­arch of Pec Antonije (92 x 118 cm). However, this rather decorative icon, of average artistic value for its epoch, is not the creation of a Serbian artist, but of a Greek from the hinterland of Mount Athos, who modelled his work on Cretan icons.

More works of greater artistic value survive from the 17th century. In the second and third decades, the Chi­landar monk Georgije Mitrofanovic, although having spent considerable time in Serbian lands, produced a number of icons for his monastery. The royal doors from 1615/1616 are his early work displaying traces of matura­tion. However, other Mitrofanovic’s icons in Chilandar — those of St Philip, the Nativity of Christ, Entry into Jerusalem, Synaxis of the Archangels — reveal the hand of an experienced master. A subtle feeling for colouristic values, delicate draftsmanship, skillful composition — all of these attest to the fact that the reputation enjoyed by this Chilandar painter in his native country was not groundless.

Of icons painted by other Serbian painters especially noteworthy is the small icon of St Paraskeve from 1631/1632 (25.5 x 33 cm) painted in an outstandingly refined manner, signed by painter Jovan, to whom the icon of St Demetrios from the main church is attributed with good reason. He was a contemporary of Georgije Mitrofanovic for a while, and learned a great deal from his artistic legacy. However, Jovan’s painting technique is more subtle, and artistic knowledge greater. In contrast to painter Jovan, the other well-known artist from the mid-17th century, Andrija Raicevic, did not visit Chilandar, but his small icon of St Sergios and Bakchos (22.5 x 32.5 cm) reached Mount Athos. Also known as a miniaturist, the modestly talented Raicevic rarely produced works at a high stylistic level. This icon cannot be classified as a masterpiece, for the drawing is oversimplified, and colouring rather crude.

Seventeenth-century Greek painters are well repre­sented in the Chilandar icon collection both as regards their number and artistic merit. The collection accommo­dated in the second, smaller, chamber includes the icon of Prince Lazar and George the New, which, although bear­ing no signature, can be attributed to priest Danilo who painted the church of St Nicholas in 1667. An icon with the effigies of two saints, who suffered martyrdom at the hands of the Turks, closely resembles the representations of Prince Lazar and George the New in the church of St Nicholas in respect of both their iconography and paint­ing technique.

The icon of St Sava of Serbia and Stefan Nemanja from the mid-17th century is the creation of a Greek artist executed at a highly professional level. However, the icon of the Serbian saints is especially interesting, for the remains of an earlier icon seem to be hiding beneath the present-day layer. On the removal of the icon frame, parts of surviving Serbian inscriptions were revealed, rather archaic in paleographic terms.

The icon of four warrior-saints — Demetrios, George, Artemios and Procopios from 1680/1681, gift of the hieromonk Mitrofan (48 x 37.5 cm), attest to the fact that certain Greek icon painters skillfully emulated the old manner of painting at the close of the 17th century. Although the inscriptions are Serbian, the icon is the work of an anonymous Greek artist, who displayed his flair for decoration and a fine sense of colour harmonies.

Of the Chilandar icons, numbering several hundred, which are displayed not only in the treasury but also in the churches and residence buildings, the collection of Russian icons is especially noteworthy. They arrived at Chilandar as gifts presented by Russian sovereigns and benefactors in general, brought by Chilandar monks from this large Orthodox country. The collection includes works from the 16th and the 17th centuries, as well as those from later epochs, up to the present age. Some of them are old (the Holy Mandelion by the painter Ephraim and a part of the Never Sleeping Eye, both from the first half of the 16th century, a triptych with representations of the Virgin and Christ with saints, especially commissioned as a gift for Mount Athos in 1548), but the majority of them date from the second half of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th centuries. Small in size, they chiefly display portraits of Russian saints, i.e. the Metropolitan Alexios, Bishop Leontios of Rostov, and many others. These icons of light colouring, attracting attention by their subtle simplicity and fine harmonies of colours, were supposed to help the spread of the cult of Russian saints out of the borders of the Russian Empire.

More than a thousand manuscripts dating from vari­ous epochs — from the 12th until the end of the 19th cen­turies — are kept in the Chilandar treasury. As regards the number and importance of its manuscripts, this library bears great significance for the study of old Ser­bian literature and culture. The majority of manuscripts are Serbian, but some are Greek, Russian, Bulgarian, etc. Many contain important texts of theological or historical content. Some of the Chilandar manuscripts are notewor­thy for their artistic value, having been embellished by skillful calligraphers and painters with initials, headpieces and figural miniatures.

The Chilandar collection used to include the famous Miroslav’s Gospel, which came into existence at the end of the 12th century. It is treasured in Belgrade now, hav­ing been presented by Chilandar monks to King Aleksandar Obrenovic on the occasion of his visit to the monastery in 1896.

Of Chilandar manuscripts, volumes dating from the 12th and the 13th centuries are meagerly embellished with initials and headpieces. Nevertheless, several of these books written on parchment are very representa­tive (a twelfth-century Greek gospel, a Serbian Gospel Lectionary from the third quarter of the 13th century, on display in the first chamber on the second floor).

The most lavishly illuminated books in the collection date from the 14th century. Apart from other ornaments, the Gospel of the Patriarch Sava from the third quarter of the 14th century contains four portraits of the evangelists painted in richly ornamented square headpieces. The evangelists are pictured at scribes’ stands, with maidens, symbolizing Wisdom, whispering divine words behind their backs. Although miniature in size, human figures are depicted in a refined manner, and the exquisitely rich frame of the headpieces painted around the evangelists adds to the beauty of these miniatures.

The gospel from 1337, known after its scribe as Roman’s gospel, was illustrated approximately a quarter of the century later, by order of the abbot Dorotej. The large miniatures of the evangelists beneath painted arch­es on a gold background were executed with such great care, with the aim of accentuating typical features of indi­vidual characters, that they resemble small icons.

Even when some richly decorated manuscripts do not contain figural miniatures, as is the case, for instance, with the Gospel Lectionary (around 1365), gift of the grand voevoda Nikola Stanjevic, the virtuosity of drawing and the subtlety of colours displayed in the painting of initials, and headpieces in particular, render these manu­scripts exquisitely beautiful.

In the collections, there are few illuminated manu­scripts dating from the 15th century. One of them is the Homilies of John Chrysostom, copied in Smederevo in the mid-15th century, which may have reached Chilandar as a gift from a member of the ruling house of Brankovic. For this book, the painter Teodor produced a portrait of its author John Chrysostom, in which the subtlety of the painting of the Morava Serbia is reflected.

Of the numerous manuscripts copied in the 16th and 17th centuries, very few are richly illuminated. The Apos­tle of the abbot Viktor, embellished in 1660 by an anony­mous Greek miniaturist, includes several representations of apostles in small frames. Focusing greater attention on the portrayed characters, and less on the setting, he dis­tinguished himself as a skillful master capable of selecting excellent paragons.

Several manuscripts from the first half and the middle of the 17th century contain painted miniatures in which images of the evangelists are set in the centre of head­pieces with interlace decoration. Although of modest artistic abilities, the anonymous authors had a fine flair for ornamentation, so that as a whole, this group of man­uscripts leaves a good impression.

The Chilandar treasury also contains very rare copies of printed Cyrillic books dating from the end of the 15th until the end of the 17th centuries. Rare speci­mens include several incunabula — books issued in Cetinje before 1500: three Octoechoi from 1494, as well as three Psalters with supplements from 1495. These books came into existence thanks to the generosity of Djurdje Crnojevic and the skill of the printer, monk Makarije. In addition, Chilandar treasures about thirty different volumes originating from the famous Venetian print-house of Bozidar Vukovic and his son Vicenzo. A special rarity in the Chilandar collection of old printed books is the Four Gospels, issued in 1512 on the order of Jovan Basaraba, work of the Cetinje printer Makarije. Some of these printed books are adorned with graphic prints showing portraits of saints and scenes of particu­lar feasts. As regards objects of applied art, the most numerous are artifacts of embroidery from the 14th and 15th cen­turies (the epitaphios of Jovan, the Metropolitan of Sko­plje, from the mid-14th century, the embroidered curtain for the royal doors of the iconostasis, gift of the nun Jefim-ija from 1399, an embroidery featuring the scene of the Communion of the Apostles around 1400, an aer with rep­resentations of the Annunciation and the Nativity of Christ, also from 1400, an aer with scenes of the Adoration of the Lamb from 15th century, etc.). These embroideries are the work of skillful artisans who by means of delicate needlework managed to represent individual figures and events with remarkable precision. The richness of the uti­lized material also comes to prominence, for in the manu­facture of these embroideries expensive fabrics, gold and silver thread, combined with dyed silk, were used.

The curtain for the iconostasis embroidered by the despina Jelena, who adopted the monastic name of Jefimija, with the effigies of Christ, two Church Fathers and two angels, ranks among the finest examples of embroidery, not only in the Chilandar collection, but in Serbian art in general. Emphasizing the attire of saints by the opulence of the material employed, Jefimija embroi­dered on the curtain the text of a prayer in verse. The embroidery with the scene of the Communion of the Apostles from around 1400 is also of great artistic value. Of rather serene colouring, the representation is one of the finest achievements of that epoch as regards drafts­manship.

The curtain presented to Chilandar by the Russian Tzar Ivan IV the Terrible in 1556, is a valuable specimen of Russian embroidery of a later epoch. Christ, the Vir­gin and John the Forerunner placed in its centre are sur­rounded by medallions featuring representations of ten Russian saints, as well as the founders of Chilandar, St Sava of Serbia and St Simeon of Serbia — Stefan Nemanja.

The many costly works of art treasured in Chilandar also include a number of Byzantine cameos from the llth-14th centuries, of which the cameos with images of St Demetrios, llth century, and a bust of Christ, 13th cen­tury, are especially noteworthy for their beauty.

The woodcut diptych of the small Ugljesa Despotovic in a frame of pearls and semiprecious stones from 1368/1369, is not only a specimen demonstrating the exquisite craftsmanship of the goldsmiths and wood-engravers who produced it, but also a very touching liter­ary work in which the mother, despina Jelena, subse­quently nun Jefimija, expressed her grief for the early death of her only son.

An especially valuable holding of the Chilandar trea­sury is a diptych from around 1300 containing twenty-four painted fields on parchment. They include illustra­tions of events from Christ’s life and passion. Ornament­ed with silver-gilt filigree work, pearls, semiprecious stones and rock crystal, the diptych attests to the high level of craftsmanship of Venetian artisans, from whom King Milutin most probably purchased it at the time of the church construction.

More than fifty copperplates from which prints were restruck in the 18th and 19th century have survived in Chilandar. Copperplate engravings of the monastery’s vistas are especially interesting, of which the one from 1757 produced in Moscow at the expense of the Archi­mandrite of Pec Jelisej Rodionovic stands apart. On the edges, it includes figures of Serbian saints.

Of the woodcuts, especially noteworthy is the Cruci­fixion from the beginning of the 16th century, whose woodcut block has survived. On its reverse side is the carved block of the quadripartite icon with the images of the Virgin, the Archangel Michael, St Nicholas and St Paraskeve. It is probably the work of a Cretan master, who was a gifted draftsman.

A large red-green silk flag from the treasury is known as the Emperor Dusan’s flag, although its age has not been ascertained. But there is no doubt that the so-called “chalice of the Emperor Dusan” made of ivory was pro­duced in Germany as late as the 16th century. Of the works of applied art kept in the treasury, a lavishly embroidered curtain — katapetasma — with a represen­tation of the Tree of Jesse, stands apart. Its centre is taken by the Presentation of the Virgin into the Temple, the feast-day celebrated by the monastery. It was pre­sented to the monastery by “God’s servant” Mihailo in 1780.

Very few works of art dating from the 19th century have survived in Chilandar. A church flag — “horugva” — donated to the monastery by the Bishop of Backa Jovan Jovanovic in 1801 is displayed in the treasury. It features two Chilandar donors — rulers, King Milutin and Prince Lazar, while the reverse side is taken by the Ascension of Christ. This work, executed in the spirit of late Baroque in 1800, was produced by Stefan Gavrilovic, a painter from Sremski Karlovci.

Another famous artist, Uros Knezevic, painted a por­trait of the Archimandrite Onufrije Popovic on the occa­sion of his visit to Belgrade in 1854. Afterwards, the archimandrite of Chilandar brought the painting to the monastery. The painter Milan Milovanovic left a trace of his sojourn in Chilandar in 1907 — a vista of the monastery of St Basil by the sea, clearly displaying his links with impressionism.

Chilandar treasures a number of charters — 367 — dating from the 13th up to the 17th centuries, issued by various rulers — members of the Nemanjic and Lazarevic dynasties, Greek and Russian emperors, Wallachian and Moldavian dukes (Milutin’s charter to Chilandar and Hrusija tower from around 1303, a charter of Prince Lazar to the Chilandar hospital from 1379/1380, a chrysobull of the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos III issued to Chilandar in 1317, a chrysobull of the Russian Tzar Theodore Ivanovic from 1585, etc.). On some of them gold bullas have survived, bearing miniature repre­sentations of sovereigns or saints. Their priceless content ranks them among primary historical sources, especially for the study of old Serbian history.

The rich archive of Chilandar treasures various histor­ical documents dating from the 15th century to the pre­sent day, pertaining not only to the history of Chilandar but also to Mount Athos, Serbia and other Balkan coun­tries.

Today’s main church of Chilandar, dedicated to the Presentation of the Virgin into the Temple, was con­structed and painted at the very beginning of the 14th century, as can be inferred from the original inscription, read recently after a later copy had been cleaned. The founder was King Milutin (1282-1321) who lavished rich gifts on Chilandar all through his life. Around 1380, an exonarthex was added to the west side of Milutin’s foun­dation by order of Prince Lazar, the edifice thus gaining its present-day appearance.

The church erected in the southern portion of the courtyard is rather capacious: it measures 12.5 m in width by 36.5m in length, with the exonarthex being 9 m long. Its architecture clings to the Athonite tradition: King Milutin’s katholikon has a triconch ground plan and a spacious narthex. The monastery churches constructed in the 10th (Lavra) and llth centuries (Vatopedi, Iviron), provided a prototype for this kind of edifice, which proved best suited for the requirements of liturgical activ­ity on Athos.

The church was constructed of red brick, and grey and ochre stone blocks, whose alternate rows add to its pic­turesque effect. The exterior facades are vertically articu­lated by pilasters and archivolts, indicating the internal division of the church. The horizontal division of the facade is emphasized by means of two, three or several tiers of brick.

Like other Byzantine places of worship, Milutin’s endowment is divided into three areas: the sanctuary, nave and narthex. The nave is separated from the narthex by a wall pierced by three passages, and shut off from the sanctuary by the iconostasis. Two powerful piers divide the sanctuary into three sections: the central is taken by the communion table ending in a semi-circular apse, the prothesis is to the north, and the diaconicon to the south. The nave is the most capacious part of the church with semi-circular choir apses on the north and south sides, topped by semi-calottes. These apses, as well as the sanctuary apse, are five-sided on the exterior. A large, seg­mented dome crowns the nave.

It is supported by four columns recessed into four corners of the nave, so that they do not make the central space narrow. Four barrel-vaults rise above the remaining space of the nave, form­ing a cross-in-square, easily distinguishable on the out­side.

Two piers, placed in the centre, divide the narthex into six bays. Two lateral ones on the western side are surmounted by small domes, the central one in the east by a blind dome, while the others are groin-vaulted. Milutin’s church is pierced by a large number of aper­tures — doors and windows which provide sufficient and even lighting to the church interior. The windows are greatly diversified; apart from ordinary windows, they include a number of two-light and three-light windows. The sanctuary apse displays an especially well-shaped three-light window, featuring two marble mullions with capitals. Among the portals of Milutin’s Chilandar church especially noteworthy is the entrance portal, situated in the west, with an architrave beam adorned with closely interlaced bands, the intertwining space being filled with black paste, and with three heads — two lion’s and one angel’s. The portal between the narthex and nave also has a beautifully carved console, but it does not contain fig-ural representations. The large three-light windows in the choirs and the two-light windows on the narthex termi­nate in the lower part with marble slabs, mostly covered with shallow interlace motifs, fancifully carved. Most of these slabs, as well as several capitals on the mullions, originate from Nemanja’s old church. It is only certain that two principal portals, the sanctuary three-light win­dow and the slabs on the north choir were carved for the present-day Chilandar church.

The floor in the nave represents a special element of ornamentation in the Chilandar katholikon. It is made up of multicoloured polished slabs and mosaic tessera inlaid along the edges of the slabs and forming a variety of pat­terns. The two Greek craftsmen who produced this floor, Michael and Barnabas, carved their names in the lintel of the south portal of the narthex, and encircled it by mosaic.

The Chilandar church of King Milutin is a successful synthesis of Athonite building traditions and the archi­tectural conceptions typical of Constantinople of that time, and, to a lesser degree, Thessaloniki. The unknown master mason, following the Athonite prototypes, con­structed an edifice of a developed cross-in-square ground plan with choir apses and the narthex separated by a wall. On the other hand, construction technique, the system of apertures, reliefs, the type of the dome and other ele­ments, are akin to the manner of building fostered in the Byzantine capital around 1200. The beauty of Milutin’s foundation in Chilandar is displayed in the harmony of the interior disposition of space with the exterior archi­tecture. In many of its architectural features, Milutin’s church in Chilandar departs from the churches erected in Serbia at that time. It was only in the eighth decade of the 14th century that the influence of Mount Athos was felt in Serbia when the triconch ground plan became estab­lished and adopted in the Morava architecture.

The exonarthex of the main Chilandar church was erected around 1380, under the patronage of Prince Lazar Hrebeljanovic, to which tradition and his later founder’s portraits bear witness. The inner narthex con­structed in Milutin’s time served as a model for the exonarthex: it is of the same width, it also has two columns in the central section dividing it into six bays; apart from the principal, it also features two lateral entrances in the north and south, and two-light windows with closure stone slabs decorated with relief. The man­ner of building of Lazar’s narthex is similar to that of Milutin’s, because alternate courses of stone and brick were employed in the construction of both. Understand­ably, there are certain differences, brought about by the epoch of construction and the purpose of the founder. The exonarthex is capped by a single dome, above the central western bay. The remaining bays are surmounted by blind domes, which are shallow, except for the central one on the east side. Besides this, the apertures on Lazar’s narthex are larger, but it does not resemble an open porch, because the large two-light windows are glazed and closed by parapets. Some of these parapets date from the 12th century, but most of them were pro­duced at the time of the narthex’s construction — around 1380. Interlace decoration, floral ornaments, and several figures are carved in the spirit of Morava architectural traditions; there are also circular windows — rosettes. The most interesting are the closure slabs built in the lower parts of the north and south two-light windows, because they display carved heraldic symbols: a plumed helmet, the coat-of-arms of Prince Lazar, and subse­quently Stefan Lazarevic, on the south side, the double-headed eagle, emblem of the Nemanjic dynasty and two connected dragons, the coat-of-arms of an unknown fam­ily, on the north side. The opulence of the sculptural dec­oration is enhanced by four consoles bearing the repre­sentations of human and lion’s heads, most probably dat­ing from the 12th century, placed above the west and south portals. In spite of the diversity of stone reliefs and some differences in construction, the exonarthex forms a harmonious whole with Milutin’s foundation.

The west portal of the exonarthex was reconstructed in the spirit of Baroque in 1779 through the efforts of the deputy abbot Danilo from Eskizagar — Stara Zagora in Bulgaria, and the wooden door at this entrance with some kind of intarsia were produced in 1891.

Wall-paintings in the entire main Chilandar church were repainted in 1803 by the monk-painters Benjamin, Zacharias and their associates from the village of Gale-sios on the way from Mount Athos to Thessaloniki. They performed this task meticulously, without damaging ear­lier frescoes or changing their content. It is therefore pos­sible to speak with great certainty about the subject-mat­ter of the oldest Chilandar frescoes in the main church from King Milutin’s time.

In the sanctuary of the main church, the row of bish­ops, including St Sava of Serbia among them, is painted in the lower zones, the Communion of the Apostles and the Virgin with Christ are placed in the apse, while the wall surfaces are covered with scenes chiefly illustrating the events following the Resurrection of Christ. In the nave, the standing figures of the military saints, hermits and other saintly personages are grouped in the lowest band. The south-west corner features the portrait of the founder King Milutin, flanked by St Stephen the Protomartyr on the left, and St Sava of Serbia and Simeon Nemanja of Serbia on the right. The second tier includes episodes from the life of the Virgin, the patroness of the church, and also some compositions relating to the life and miracles of Christ. Christ’s Passion and Miracles in the third zone are surmounted by the Great Feasts. Some of the feasts abound with details, such as the Baptism of Christ depicted in the semi-dome of the south choir. At the summit of the dome is the image of Christ, below him are the angels depicted in two tiers, then the prophets, while the four evangelists are shown on the pendentives, as is customary.

In the inner narthex of Milutin’s katholikon, standing figures are arranged in two zones. The first, lower zone contains effigies of various saints, among whom many hermits are given place, then a Deesis and the scene of the Baptism. In the upper zone, the east wall on the southern side features the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos presenting the charter for the monastery’s construction to King Milutin, next to whom is Stephan the Protomartyr. In the middle of this wall is the Virgin with the infant Christ, next to whom are the first founders of Chilandar, St Sava and Simeon Nema­nja. Around 1325, the Emperor Andronikos III, co-emper­or of Andronikos II, King Stefan Decanski and his son Dusan were painted in the upper zone, on the north side of the same wall. The pendentives of the domes feature scenes from the Old Testament, some of which can be interpreted as the Virgin’s prefigurations, while the small domes are covered by the effigies of Christ’s ancestors. The third tier on the east wall contains three episodes from the life of John Chrysostom, the Crucifixion, and the illustrations of Solomon’s text “Wisdom has built her house”. Almost forty scenes from the lives of the hermits — Makarios of Egypt, Anthony the Great, Isidore, Paul of Theba, Paphnouthios, Pachomios, Euphrosimos, Aux-entios, Dorotheos, Nathaneal, and many others, are arranged on the vault or directly beneath it.

Since the paintings from 1803, of little merit, began to be removed from the nave and the inner narthex, it is now possible to discuss the artistic value of the original fres­coes from King Milutin’s time in more definite terms. The uncovered portraits of the warrior-saints and monks in the south apse, the Presentation of the Virgin, the Christ Casting out the Merchants from the Temple and the donor’s portrait in the nave, and the effigies of kings Andronikos and Milutin, St Panteleimon or the pro-tomartyr Stephan in the narthex, reveal that they were produced by painters from Thessaloniki, who ranked among the finest artists of their time. Apart from others, the famous painter George Kalliergis is also thought to have been engaged to work in Chilandar. In conformity with the ideas of that epoch, the painters introduced a wider range of cycles in subject-matter, a larger number of figures in individual compositions, making an effort to produce literal and profuse illustrations of particular texts, to render in great detail vestments, objects or set­tings in which an event evolves. Their talent is displayed in the skillful variation of images, attitudes and move­ments of individual figures, in refined colours, and in the neatness of their compositions. Finally, the splendid por­trait of King Milutin, with a subtly delineated character, confirms that the oldest frescoes in the main Chilandar church were executed by experienced masters.

The exact date of the creation of the frescoes in Chi­landar’s main church has been recently established: they came into being in the last years of the reign of King Milutin — 1321. Some of the wall-paintings in the inner narthex came into existence at a later date. In the main Chilandar church, Milutin’s foundation, some prominent benefactors and their relatives were buried. Images of the Virgin, and occasionally other saintly figures, were placed above their tombs in the arcosolium. It is thought that in the north-west corner of the nave stands the tomb of the Caesar Voihna, father-in-law of the despot Jovan Ugljesa. In the seventh the decade of the 14th century, the Virgin of Pelagonia with a child playing in her arms was painted in a fresco above his tomb. In a good state of preservation and of fresh, bright colouring, the fresco ranks among better works of that epoch. The Virgin of Pelagonia, also shown above the tomb of an unknown person, is flanked by the Serbian saints Simeon and Sava shown in prayer for the deceased. According to i^ts style, this fresco must be dated to the seventh decade of the 14th century. In 1430-1431, Reposh, brother of the famous Scanderbeg from the Albanian family of Castri-otes, was buried in the tomb in the inner narthex, by the north wall. St George and the Serbian saints Simeon and Sava are interceding with the Virgin for the salvation of his soul. The anonymous painter of this fresco was of modest talent.

The wall-paintings in Lazar’s exonarthex cannot be said to have repeated the former subject-matter, if this space had been frescoed at the close of the 14th century. The original selection of the saints in the first row was certainly altered at the beginning of the 19th century. That tier, apart from Prince Lazar with a model of the narthex, includes Athonite and Balkan hermits, a number of saints from the ruling houses of the Nemanjic and the Brankovic, Vasilije of Ostrog, Petar of Korisa, John of Rila, George the New, saints from Mount Athos, and even the Russian Princess Olga and her grandson Prince Vladimir. It is interesting that Milos Obilic was also given a place among the saints, which was obviously linked with Prince Lazar’s patronage. The upper bands of the exonarthex contain a Deesis, the Never Sleeping Eye (Anapesson), then a number of scenes from the Calen­dar, while the representation of Christ Pantocrator is placed in the dome.

The present-day iconostasis in the katholikoo of Chi­landar bears icons from 1766 and from the beginning °f the 20th century. In the lowest zone are icons of ^a more recent date, for the most part covered by costly frames featuring inscriptions of Russian donors from th^e beginning of the 20th century. Among the main icons, (St John the Forerunner, the Serbian saints Sava and Simeon, the Virgin, then after the royal doors, Christ, the Presenta­tion of the Virgin into the Temple and the Virgin of Akathistos) especially noteworthy is the miraculous icon of the Virgin of Akathistos, which remained undamaged in 1837 when the lowest part of the iconostasis caught fire. The icon of the Virgin from around 1600 is sur­rounded by twenty four scenes illustrating the Akathistos hymn — laudatory songs praising the Virgin, placed on a wide wooden frame. This icon was named after this paint­ed frame which dates from the late 18th century. It is cel­ebrated on 12 (25) January, together with two other mir­acle-working icons — of the Virgin of the Priest and the Virgin Galaktotrophoussa.

On the iconostasis, the main icons in the lowest zone are surmounted by a row of small medallions containing the images of saints, chiefly apostles. Above it are thir­teen icons with compositions of the Great Feasts and the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Above the tier of the small medallions with prophets is set a painted cross, as is cus­tomary. All the icons, except for most of the icons placed in the lowest row of the iconostasis, dating from 1766, were produced by the painters Constantine and Athana-sios. Although the icons mainly adhere to the old iconog­raphy, some departures are nevertheless evident in the treatment of details.

Behind this iconostasis an older stone screen has sur­vived, more than three metres tall. It consisted of three components: the largest, pierced with three openings, encloses the central section and does not have a parapet now, while the area of the diaconicon is separated from the nave by a screen. A door used to stand on the marble frame at the entrance to the prothesis. Pilasters with cap­itals are beautifully modulated, but only the capitals are ornamented with reliefs. Although some hold the view that most parts of this sanctuary screen do not actually originate from King Milutin’s epoch and that they were produced in subsequent reconstruction works, it never­theless seems that all its parts date from the start of the 14th century.

Between the creation of the original iconostasis and the one dating from 1766, at least one more adorned the church interior, having been set up in 1634/1635. It came into existence owing to the efforts of the Metropolitan of Herzegovina Simeon. On his way back from the Holy Land, he paid a visit to Chilandar, and, at the request of the monks, became a benefactor.

In the nave of the katholikon there are a number of icons chiefly arranged around freestanding piers. To the east of the south-west pillar, the place of the abbot is taken by the most highly venerated treasure of Chilandar, the miraculous procession icon of the Virgin with the three hands in a rich frame from the outset of the 20th century, concealed with ex-votes. Tradition had it that it was brought from Jerusalem by St Sava of Serbia. It was named after the third hand, moulded in silver, presented to the icon by John of Damascus whose cut-off hand had been healed after he had prayed before it. The legend says that the icon dates from the 8th century, while schol­ars are of the opinion that the present-day icon of the three-handed Virgin was executed in the mid-14th centu­ry, and probably to a great degree modelled on its older prototype. Of grave and dignified expression, painted in muted tones of grey and green, the icon of the three-handed Virgin is the work of a capable Greek painter. It is venerated not only by the Serbs; Orthodox believers from other countries, Greece, Russia and Bulgaria, also pray zealously before it. On the reverse is the dignified image of St Nicholas from the mid-14th century, almost monochromic, skillfully stylized in respect of drawing.

The north side of the same, south-west pillar, bears an icon of St Nicholas, a pretty good work by a Greek mas­ter of 1749, presented by the hieromonk of Chilandar Timotej to his monastery. On the western side of this pil­lar hangs the icon of Three Church Fathers, work of a

Greek artist probably from the beginning of the 19th cen­tury.

The three sides of the north-west pillar are also adorned with icons. The west displays the Assembly of the Archangles, a Greek icon from the 18th century with the representations of nine angels and a circular medal­lion with Christ Emmanuel in the middle. On the south side of this pillar is a large icon of St Demetrios, gift of the abbot Filimon from 1631/1632. Drawn by an experienced hand, decorative in the good sense of the word, the icon is remarkable for its felicitous harmonies of colours on a gilt background. On the basis of its stylistic characteris­tics, the work is rightly attributed to the painter Jovan, and can be ranked among the finest works of the seven­teenth-century Serbian painting. On the east side of the north-western pillar the icon of the Apostles Peter and Paul is hung, in a frame from 1906 donated by the Russ­ian monks on Mount Athos. The icon features the inscription of the donor, hieromonk Isaiah, from 1656/1657, but it seems to have been re-painted at a later date, which cannot be established with certainty until the frame has been removed.

A lavishly carved proskynetarion from the second half of the 18th century reclines on the west side of the north­eastern pillar. It features the miraculous icon of the Vir­gin of the Priest (Popska) in a Russian frame from 1899, repainted in the 16th century, whose reverse face con­tains the composition of the Presentation of the Virgin into the temple. The icon was produced around 1360. Judging by the representation of the Presentation, the anonymous author, with a remarkable knowledge of painting, displayed a tendency to accentuate features of the face. Ten icons of the Deesis kept in the treasury and miniatures in a manuscript are also attributed to him.

On the west side of the south-eastern pillar is another proskynetarion, work of the same wood-carver. It bears an icon of the Holy Trinity in a frame made in Moscow in 1906 by order of the kellion of the Holy Trinity. Barely visible, the icon is of older date and may have been cre­ated in the 17th century.

In the nave of the main Chilandar church, two icons are placed on the north wall, next to the northern entrance from the narthex to the nave. One is the proces­sion icon of the Virgin of Kosinitza, work of a Greek artist from the second half of the 14th century, revered as miraculous. The other, also processional, icon depicting St George, ornamental, and of extremely vivid colouring, is the creation of a Serbian master from the beginning of the 17th century, perhaps Georgije Mitrofanovic.

The nave of the katholikon of Chilandar accommo­dates several pieces of artistically ornamented church fur­niture. The abbot’s throne from 1634/1635 inlaid with bone and mother-of-pearl, gift of the Bosnian Metropoli­tan Isaiah, made at the time of the abbot Filimon, is notable for its conscientious craftsmanship and graceful ornamentation. The beautiful double doors between the nave and inner narthex from 1631, a gift of the hieromonk Gavrilo under the abbot Filip, were executed in the same technique, as well as the double doors between the outer and inner narthexes from 1639/1640, donated by the abbot Teodosije. In the nave, there are several pieces of church furniture executed in the tech­nique of intarsia: an icon stand from 1688, work of John Litusetentzis, and two lecterns from the 17th century, bearing the stamp of the intermingled stylistic influences of the Levant, Baroque and Islam. In 1973, the shrine of St Simeon of Serbia ornamented with silver relief, work of Vojislav Bilbija, was placed in the south-west corner of the nave.

The sanctuary contains an opulent crystal cross framed with silver, in the centre of which is an ivory plaque featuring a carved-in representation of the Cruci­fixion, that is, of Christ in his tomb. It was produced around 1300, so that it may have been a gift of King Milutin. Parts of the holy relics of famous Orthodox saints are also treasured in the sanctuary: the right hand of the Patriarch Nikephoros, part of the leg of Symeon the Stylite, the skull of St Eutychios Patriarch of Con­stantinople, part of the skull of St Artemios, then parts of the limbs of SS Prokopios, Charalampes, Panteleimon, St Marina, as well as the particles of some other saints.

A large flag, presented by King Aleksandar Obren-ovic on the occasion of his visit to the monastery in 1896, hangs in the inner narthex.

In the exonarthex, a carved wooden ciborium is placed above the marble vessel containing holy water, embell­ished with twenty four figures of saints. According to its stylistic characteristics, it is datable to the mid-17th cen­tury.

The Holy Mountain, whose hills, except for Athos are covered by dense woods and bushes, is dotted with monastires, sketai (dependencies of a monastery or clusters of kellia) and small kellia. Karyes, located in the central part of the peninsula, houses the administrative seat of this large monastic community. Apear from about six hundred kellia and twelve sketai, there are twenty large monasteries on Mount Athos today, standing on a shore or a little way island: Great Lavra (Athanasios the Athonite), Vatopedi, Iviron, Chilandar, St Dionysios, Koutlumousiou, Pantocrator, St Paul etc. All these monasteries are Greek, except for three which are Slavonic- Chilandar (Serbian), Panteleimon (Russian) and Zographou (Bulgarian). Rumunians and other Orthodox monks also live in smaller monastic comunities. The Holy Mountain is governed by the Holy Community- Protaton- from Karyes, composed of the representative of all twenty monasetires.

The site of the present-day Serbian monastery seems to have been occupied in the 10th, and certainly in the 11th and 12th centuries, by the Greek monastery of Chelandariou, in all likelihood the foundation of George Chelandarios, a prominent Athonite monk. In the years following 1169, it was deserted and fell into decay due to the plundering attacks of pirates. When the Grand zupan Stefan Nemanja, having taken the monastic name of Simeon, joined his son, the monk Sava, on Athos, they at first lived in Vatopedi monastery. Wishing to found a Serbian monastery on the Holy Mountain, the father and son sent a request to the Byzan¬tine Emperor Alexios III Angelos that the derelict monastery of Chelandariou be ceded to them. The Byzantine Emperor granted their plea and in 1198 issued a chrysobull to Simeon and Sava by which they were granted the site of Chelandariou and shrines in Meleai — the area surrounding the monastery — “to be a gift to the Serbs in perpetuity”. The father and son, aided by Stefan, the Grand zupan of Serbia of that time, began to renovate Chilandar in the same year. During construction works, at the outset of 1199, Simeon passed away, but the monastery was nevertheless completed by the end of the year. Next to the ‘widely spread’ church, dedicated to the Presentation of the Virgin, a large tower (pyrgos) and cells for monks were erected. At first, there were up to fifteen monks in the monastery, but soon their number reached ninety. In 1200 Sava drew up a typikon, prescribing in it the way of life which was to be adhered to throughout centuries. The Grand zupan Stefan (the subsequent First-crowned king) and his father-in-law, the Byzantine Emperor Alexios III, lavishly endowed Chilandar with landed estates. At first, they were chiefly located in Serbian lands. Apart from this, Sava founded a hermitage at Karyes as early as 1199, dedicated to his patron-saint St Sabbas of Jerusalem, in which he, and his followers after¬wards, practiced a solitary and exemplary anchoritic life.

During the 13th century, the Serbian rulers from the house of the Nemanjics, who inherited the founder’s rights, did not cease to take care of Chilandar. In addition to a number of gifts endowed by all rulers, King Uros I, in order to protect Chilandar from the landward side, erected the tower of Transfiguration around the mid-13th century. In it, the Chilandar monk Domentijan, St Sava’s disciple, wrote the Life of St Simeon in 1264, having composed the Life of St Sava of Serbia at Karyes two decades earlier (1243). Apart from literary endeavours, various liturgical and other books were laboriously copied in the monastery. Of scribes, especially noteworthy was Theodore Grammatikos, who copied Hexaemeron in 1263 (today in Moscow). The abbots and brethren of Chilandar acquired grow¬ing prestige, and in the course of the 13th century many bishops and archbishops of the Serbian church were elected from their ranks (Sava II, Joanikije I, Jevstatije). In those years, the monastery was certainly embellished with frescoes, but little is known about it. The frescoes surviving in the tower of St George from the outset of the 13th century and in the Holy Trinity church at Spasova voda (Saviour’s water) from the mid-13th century, offer rare evidence of this. Besides this, several beautiful icons and manuscripts that have been preserved bear witness to the fact that the Chilandar church was constantly ornamented, and that the library became richer in books.

At the beginning of the 14th century, an important event occurred in the history of Chilandar. King Milutin undertook the restoration and expansion of the foundation of his ancestors, the dynasty’s founder Stefan Nemanja and the first Serbian archbishop St Sava. On obtaining the permission of the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos, he ordered that the old church be demolished and the new, present one, erected. At the same time, the generous patron erected many kellia — abodes of the Chilandar monks, a common refectory, encircled the monastery with high walls fortified with strong towers, and built the burial church in its vicinity. Since the Athonite monasteries, and Chilandar, were constantly threatened by pirates and other brigands, in 1300 King Milutin decided to erect the Hrusija tower (known today as St Basil by the sea) right on the coast, then the so-called Milutin’s tower on the road leading from the coast to Chilandar, and a tower by the hermitage at Kareys, of which no trace is left today.

Thanks to these structures, Chilandar, headed by the abbot Danilo, resisted the Catalans, renegade Spanish mercenaries, when they pillaged and ravaged the Holy Mountain between 1307 and 1310. Apart from master masons, in the first decades of the 14th century Chilandar also saw the arrival of painters. They painted the church in 1321, and at about the same time the refectory and the burial church as well, and produced an iconostasis and icons for the new main church. Besides this, King Milutin, in fulfilling his founder’s obligations, endowed the monastery with estates, a number of manuscript books, liturgical vessels, embroidery and various costly objects. The generosity of King Milutin was followed by his heirs. The Emperor Dusan, under whose rule Mount Athos came for a short period of time, showered Chilandar and other Athonite monasteries with especially lavish gifts. In 1347-1348, he took refuge there from the plague. At that time, Chilandar possessed large estates in the Morava valley, Hvosno, around Pec, in the Strymon valley, around Thesalloniki, especially in Chalkidiki. Its land estates stretched over one fifth of the Holy Mountain’s territory. The rulers were emulated by the nobility. Many feudal lords presented to the monastery churches and villages with revenue: the church in Psaca was donated by knez Paskac and his son the sebastocrator Vlatko, the monastery of Konce by the grand voivoda Nikola Stanjevic, the church of the Virgin in Arhiljevica by the despot Dejan, the church of the Holy Archangels in Stip by the protosebastos Hrelja. Besides this, the noblemen endowed Chilandar with beautifully illuminated books, icons and various other objects. The material prosperity of Chilandar was followed by a spiritual flourishment. The monastery assumed and intensified its key position as a leading literary and religious centre.

At the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th centuries, the monk Teodosije composed two notable works of medieval Serbian literature: the Life with the Service to St Petar of Korisa, hermit from the environs of Prizren, and the Life of St Sava of Serbia, the founder of Chilandar. Another renowned monk from Chilandar and the subsequent Serbian archbishop, Danilo II, is the author of the celebrated Lives of Serbian kings and archbishops, then the services to St Arsenios and St Eustathios. Another archbishop, also a Chilandar monk, Jefrem, left behind him fine examples of ecclesiastical poetry. The gifted anonymous writer who continued Danilo’s Lives of Serbian kings and archbishops certainly lived in this monastery. In that epoch, Chilandar housed a number of scribes, who copied various writings for the requirements of liturgical activity, as well as those with a more complex theological content.

Except for the monastery itself, manuscripts were copied in the hermitage at Kareys (monk Theodoulos). Many of them were illuminated by initials and headpieces, and some contained figural miniatures as well. Chilandar’s reputation was to a great extent raised by its prominent abbots and monks. As in the 13th century, in the course of the 14th, several abbots from this monastery came to the head of the Archdiocese, that is, from 1346 the Patriarchate of Pec (archbishops Nikodim, Danilo II, patriarchs Jefrem, Sava IV).

The exceptional significance of Chilandar in the 14th century is confirmed by its role in the relations between the enfeebled Byzantium of that time, and Serbia in full ascent. A major role in these affairs was played by Gervasije, who held the office of the abbot of Chilandar for two decades and was an important intermediary in Serbia’s complex relations with Byzantium. The battle of the Marica in 1371, and the unstoppable Turkish conquest of the Christian states in the Balkans, did not severe the link of Chilandar with the mother country, nor were the monastery’s survival and welfare seriously threatened at first.

Around 1380, Prince Lazar appeared as a new patron, having added to the principal church, Milutin’s foundation, a spacious exonarthex. Besides this, he presented Chilandar with other gifts, i.e. with the annual revenue of the mine in Novo Brdo among other things. Other rulers, heirs to Dusan’s vast empire, lavishly aided Chilandar as well. Before his death at the battle of the Marica, the despot Jovan Ugljesa donated new land estates; around 1375, the despot Toma Preljubovic in all probability supplied financial assistance wilh which the small church of the Holy Archangels was fresco-painted. In the epoch around the battle of Marica, and after it, translation and scribal activities did not abate. Just before 1371, the famous theological-philosophical work of Pseudo-Dionisios the Areopagite was translated by Isaiah, the learned monk of Chilandar, the writings of Gregory Pala-mas and Gregory the Sinaites were copied out, and at the beginning of the 15th century the Agricultural law was copied and translated, perhaps for the first time.

Original literary creations were rare, but a few were nevertheless produced: at the close of the 14th century, a disciple of Isaiah’s concocted the Life of this distinguished Chilan¬dar monk. This Chilandar’s monk was to play a major role in the ecclesiastical and state affairs in fourteenth-century Serbia. It was through his efforts that in 1375 a reconciliation between the Patriarchates of Pec and Con¬stantinople was achieved, and the anathema pronounced on the Serbian church because of the unauthorized proclamation of the patriarchate, lifted. The precarious times before the final downfall of the Balkan states to Turkish rule were also felt in Chilandar. The endangered secular and ecclesiastical dignitaries took shelter at Chilandar: if laymen, they took a monastic vow, or secured the right to lifelong maintenance by donating the monastery a large contribution, that is, by purchasing the so-called adelphaton. The blind son of George Brankovic, Grgur, who adopted the monastic name of German, spent his last days on a Chilandar estate in the Strymon region; John Castriotes from Albania purchased a tower from Chilandar together with his sons, so that he could find shelter there in case the need should arise, while the Metropolitan of Serres Sabas and the Metropolitan of Melnik took shelter at Chilandar, having been deprived of their dioceses.

Chilandar and Mount Athos temporarily lost their freedom at first, between 1387 and 1403, and then were to live under the Turks for the five ensuing centuries (1430-1912), almost without interruption. The first decades under the supremacy of Islam were obviously not easy. Chilandar lost some of its estates, and it is not circumstantial that no evidence has survived bearing on scribal or literary activities. An indirect testimony to the monastery’s strained conditions is the fact that in 1503 the despina Angelina Brankovic solicited aid for it from the Grand Prince of Russia. Constant and generous Russian aid began to reach Chilandar from 1550, when the abbot Pajsije was kindly received by the Russian Tzar Ivan IV the Terrible. This Russian sovereign was the most generous benefactor to the monastery in the 16th century: Chilandar was supplied with money for restoration, then with icons, books, costly ecclesiastical objects, and in 1571 with a mansion in Moscow. Russia continued to provide contributions up to the beginning of the 20th century, and for some time this privileged position invested the monks of Chilandar with the right to journey to Russia to receive gifts once in three years. The monastery was also aided by other free Orthodox countries — the rulers of Wallachia obliged themselves to lend regular assistance and issued charters about this.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, the donations that reached Chilandar from Serbian lands primarily came from wealthy citizens: merchants, craftsmen, instead of the rulers and nobility of past times. In his will of 1539, Bozidar Vukovic, a Serbian printer in Venice, bequeathed to Chilandar his Meneion, printed on parchment with lavishly decorated covers. At the close of the 17th century, one of the monastery’s most generous benefactor was the monk Nikanor, as it seems, a former Serbian merchant from Venice, who restored the skete of the Holy Trinity and donated many other contributions. Besides this, gifts of books and icons made by the Serbian patriarchs of Pec Antonije and Jovan, or Maksim, on the occasion of his visit in 1658, confirmed that they had not forgotten the famous monastery. Two Metropolitans were especially generous to Chilandar. The Metropolitan of Herzegovina, Simeon, commissioned an iconostasis for the main church in 1634/1635. In the ninth decade of the 17th century, the small church of the Nativity of John the Forerunner was erected on the tower of St Sava of Serbia; it was painted with frescoes and adorned with an iconostasis at the expense of the Metropolitan of Belgrade, Simeon.

The protosyngelos of the Patriarchate of Pec, Visarion, supplied the means for the construction of a cistern in 1682. That in the 16th and 17th centuries Chilandar not only survived, but also experienced occasional flourishing periods, is to the merit of the capable abbots of Chilan dar, i.e. Filip, Teodosije, Filimon, and especially Viktor. In spite of strained circumstances, they managed to restore different buildings in the monastery, refectory, residence buildings, and small churches.

On the basis of large-scale artistic and construction enterprises in the 17th century, it could be deduced that as regards economy, the monks of Chilandar adapted themselves success-fully to the non-coreligionist authorities. In the course of the 16th and 17th centuries, Chilandar did not fall behind in the spiritual matters. True, among the ranks of Serbian monks of that time there were no prominent writers producing literary works, but there were many copyists working in the monastery itself, at Kareys and in the skete of St Anna. Because of their reputation, the Serbian monasteries from Bosnia and Srem, and many others, endevoured to provide themselves with manuscripts copied on the Holy Mountain. In Chilandar, and in Athos in general, important theological compos tions were translated and amended, in which a special role was played by Gregory from Karyes, hieromonk Damascinos, spiritual father from Spasova Voda, and daskal (teacher) Samuil Bakacic. The artistic activity in Chilandar was not particularly lively in the period from the Turkish conquest until the beginning of the 17th century. In the course of the second and third decades of the 17th century, an impetus to it was given by the Chilandar monk and painter Georgije Mitrofanovic, who worked a lot in his native country, but also in Chilandar. Chilandar entered the 18th century making an effort to reassume its key position by strengthening ties primarily with Orthodox Slavs in the Balkans. Apart from Russ¬ian aid, for whose distribution the responsibility was now transferred from the sovereigns to the Holy Synod, the monks of Chilandar requested help from the Metropolitan of Karlovac and Serbian ecclesiastical communes in south Hungary and Sarajevo. From the mid-18th century, they increasingly appealed to the Orthodox believers in Bulgaria, for a large number of monks came to the monastery from these regions of the Balkans. A major fire which in 1722 destroyed all the buildings, from the tower of St Sava to the tower of St George, induced the monks of Chilandar to undertake extensive reconstruction works, which began as early as 1728. In 1770, another large fire on the west side of the monastery induced the monks to exert new efforts, so that the restoration of the residence buildings and small churches in them was to last for the remaining part of the 18th century. In that period several residence buildings and small churches were con¬structed, and subsequently adorned with wall-paintings and iconostases.

Some benefactors came from Serbia, but for the most part Bulgarians from Vidin, and the villages of Banska and Koprivstica, distinguished themselves by their rich contributions. In the 18th century, spiritual life was not very inten¬sive. The most reputable among the monks was the Bulgarian Pajsije of Chilandar, who, living in the monastery in the mid-18th century, wrote a Slavonic-Bulgarian History (1762), a book of great significance for the arousal of national consciousness among Bulgarians. From Russia and the Ukraine, where they went for help, the monks of Chilandar brought new books, now only printed, in which a new aspect of Orthodox theology was fostered under the influence of the West. As the place treasuring a large number of relics, historical and artistic works, in the first half of the 18th century Chilandar began to attract pil¬grims and men of learning.

The Russian Vasilij Barskij paid a visit to the monastery as early as 1725, and after that in 1744. Dositej Obradovic sojourned in Chilandar in the winter of 1765-1766, and left a testimony to the fact that the Serbs disputed with Bulgarians to whom Chilandar actually belonged. At the very end of the 18th century, Chilandar ceased to be ruled by the abbot, and two epitropoi and two deputy abbots were elected instead, to run the monastery together with the most eminent monks – the Assembly of Gerontes. From that time onwards, the miraculous icon of the Virgin with the three hands was considered to be the abbotess of Chilandar for the ensuing two centuries. This was changed in 1991, when the abbot was installed again. The first half of the 19th century was marked by the construction of large residence buildings on the north side. During this period the Greek rebellion flared up (1821 -1829), bringing about great trouble to the Athonite monasteries because of Turkish violence. An epidemic of the plague, which broke out in 1837, thinned the ranks of (he Chilandar monks to a great degree. In the 19th cen¬tury, the monastery was almost exclusively peopled by monks from Bulgaria, although the connections with Serbian lands were not severed. Occasionally, as in 1820 and 1835, Prince Milos aided Chilandar and other Athonite monasteries. Chilandar was visited by an increasing number of scholars coming from Russia (V. Grigorovic in 1844, P. Uspenskij 1845), Bulgaria (K. Petkovic in 1852), and Serbia (J. Rajic in 1758, D. Avramovic in 1847, N. Ducic in 1882, and many others). At the end of the 19th century Sava of Chilandar, the learned Czech who took monastic vows, helped a lot to throw open the literary treasure of Chilandar to scholarly circles. When the Serbian King Aleksandar Obrenovic visited Chilandar in 1896, and the Serbian state paid off the monastery’s debt, the door of the monastery opened to monks from Serbia, so that at the beginning of the 20th century Chilandar became Serbian again.

In 1196 Stephen Nemanja abdicated and became a monk of Chilandar Monastery on Mt Athos. When he died his relics were translated to Studenica’s katholikon, where he was entombed in a marble sarcophagus and venerated as the first Serbian saint.

The main church belongs to the Raška school of architecture with its tall, single nave surmounted by a gabled roof, two side bays for choirs, a tripartite sanctuary terminating in three semicircular apses, and a deep inner narthex; it also has a dome and a drum, both of which are duodecagonal and supported by four arches above the central bay. The exterior is built of polished marble and adorned with Romanesque carvings. Particularly noteworthy are the relief figures of Christ and the Apostles on the jambs of the west portal, the Virgin and Child Enthroned with Archangels Michael and Gabriel (see [not available online]) in the tympanum above the portal, and the plants and mythological creatures (e.g. griffins, dragons and centaurs) that decorate the archivolt surrounding it and the roof corbels. In the tympanum of the apse window a dragon devours a man and a basilisk observes them. The fine carving and the traces of gold and other colours suggest the work of craftsmen from the south Adriatic coast. An exonarthex and side chapels were added in 1235 by Stephen Radoslav (reg 1227–34). An inscription around the dome’s drum indicates that the original frescoes in the nave interior were commissioned in 1208–9 by Stephen Nemanja’s sons. The frescoes have different backgrounds; some scenes, such as the Last Supper and the Virgin Enthroned in the sanctuary and the Annunciation in the nave, are on a gold ground while the others are on a blue ground. Other scenes, including the Life of Christ, Stephen Nemanja Presenting a Model of the Church to the Virgin and the Dormition, were repainted in 1568. The serene quality of the figures is conveyed through the smoothly delineated forms of the bodies, the heavy folds of the drapery and the large, open eyes. The frescoes in the south chapel of the exonarthex are contemporary with its construction and depict themes of local interest, including the Translation of the Body of Stephen Nemanja, and King Radoslav shown as a founder with his wife and ancestors, and various Serbian archbishops.

The more modest chapel of St Nicholas also recalls the Raška architectural school. Its fragmentary fresco decoration, however, is in a more archaic, classicizing ‘Komnenian’ style and was probably executed by a local workshop in the late 13th century. The later King’s Church has a Greek-cross plan with a central dome and a tripartite sanctuary. Its interior frescoes are divided into three levels with, on the lowest level, portraits of Nemanjić and other saints, and King Stephen Uroš II Milutin Offering a Model of the Church, flanked by St Anne, and his wife Queen Simonis. The Life of the Virgin occupies the middle level, with the Twelve Feasts at the top. The parallel depiction of Christ’s earthly ancestors and Milutin’s saintly ancestors may be an attempt to emphasize the King’s position in the hierarchy of princes as the son-in-law of Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos (reg 1282–1328) and the heir of Nemanjić authority. These frescoes are among the finest examples of the classicizing style in Palaiologan art

Among the other conventual buildings are the late 12th-century refectory and several 14th-century chapels. Fragmentary painted portraits (1208–9) of Nemanja’s sons Vukan and Stephen Nemanjić (reg 1196–1227) have been found at the west gate of the surrounding walls and a Tree of Jesse (13th century) adorns the west tower. The katholikon’s exonarthex is used as the monastery’s treasury and houses the walnut coffin of Stefan Prvovenčani, made in 1608 when the king’s body was planned to be translated to Studenica, a 16th-century evangelistery, a silver casket with bas-reliefs (c. 1628–9) made at Studenica to house a relic of the True Cross, and 17th- and 18th-century books, liturgical vestments and icons.

REFERENCE:

Gordana Babić