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DOI Artikel:Krasny, Piotr: Principes, praedecessores et praeceptores nostri: nowy wizerunek młodzieńczych świętych władców w sztuce Europy Środkowej w XVII i XVIII wieku
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32431#0181
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Tsar Urosh. It belonged to the Nemanjic dynasty which
issued numerous saints, famous mainly for their achieve-
ments in battles and depicted as sinister bearded men.
Urosh was initially represented in the same way, although
his military and political failures earned him the pseudo-
nym Urosh the Unremarkable. However, this shortcoming
of his was used as an advantage when the need arose to
create a model for Serbian youth, educated in Orthodox
high schools to become loyal subjects of the Habsburgs.
The life of St. Urosh was supplemented with stories of his
kindness and forbearance for his enemies and the account
of his assassination by a jealous relative, which was most
obviously borrowed from the hagiography of St. Boris and
St. Gleb. The engraver Hristofor Zefarovic popularized the
new image of the Tsar modelled on the depictions of other
benign princes. Throughout the eighteenth century this
image appeared as on occidentalised paintings as well as
on traditional icons, promoting a completely new model
of holiness which was more suitable for the Serbs, looking
for their place in a multinational state.
Wherever the worship for youthful rulers developed,
it disciplined both religious and civic attitudes of young
people according to the challenges of those times. Violent
sectarian wars which shook Central Europe in the second
half of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries led to signif-
icant depravity of young people, who became accustomed
to using violence in the name of God. Enlightened clergy
tried to develop of virtues in young men which were needed
for the peaceful resolution of religious conflicts in the inter-
est of those countries whose citizens were permanently
in disagreement regarding their faith. This purpose was
very well served by promoting a new image of young saint
rulers as those closely identified with a particular nation
and its eternal religious tradition, who also depicted an
outstanding, even heroic delicacy.
Tsar Urosh. It belonged to the Nemanjic dynasty which
issued numerous saints, famous mainly for their achieve-
ments in battles and depicted as sinister bearded men.
Urosh was initially represented in the same way, although
his military and political failures earned him the pseudo-
nym Urosh the Unremarkable. However, this shortcoming
of his was used as an advantage when the need arose to
create a model for Serbian youth, educated in Orthodox
high schools to become loyal subjects of the Habsburgs.
The life of St. Urosh was supplemented with stories of his
kindness and forbearance for his enemies and the account
of his assassination by a jealous relative, which was most
obviously borrowed from the hagiography of St. Boris and
St. Gleb. The engraver Hristofor Zefarovic popularized the
new image of the Tsar modelled on the depictions of other
benign princes. Throughout the eighteenth century this
image appeared as on occidentalised paintings as well as
on traditional icons, promoting a completely new model
of holiness which was more suitable for the Serbs, looking
for their place in a multinational state.
Wherever the worship for youthful rulers developed,
it disciplined both religious and civic attitudes of young
people according to the challenges of those times. Violent
sectarian wars which shook Central Europe in the second
half of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries led to signif-
icant depravity of young people, who became accustomed
to using violence in the name of God. Enlightened clergy
tried to develop of virtues in young men which were needed
for the peaceful resolution of religious conflicts in the inter-
est of those countries whose citizens were permanently
in disagreement regarding their faith. This purpose was
very well served by promoting a new image of young saint
rulers as those closely identified with a particular nation
and its eternal religious tradition, who also depicted an
outstanding, even heroic delicacy.