Research Project by Ivan Drpić, University of Pennsylvania

Overview

This project undertakes a systematic study of the materials and techniques of gilding in medieval Serbian painting. The investigation focuses on the pictorial decoration of the churches at Studenica (1208/9), Mileševa (shortly before 1227), Sopoćani (ca. 1265), Gradac (ca. 1280), and Banjska (ca. 1317–21), all founded by members of the ruling Nemanjić dynasty. The murals of these churches originally featured backgrounds covered with gold leaf and patterned in imitation of mosaic tesserae—an expensive and fragile form of decoration only traces of which now survive. Research is conducted through a combination of in situ examination and recording, sampling, and laboratory microanalyses. The project’s immediate goal is to generate new data on an unusual and poorly understood form of decoration and thus to contribute to a better understanding of the production and materiality of medieval wall painting. Beyond this, the project situates the Serbian gilded murals with simulated tessellation within the broader context of Mediterranean visual culture in the later Middle Ages. It takes the economy, technology, and aesthetics of gilding as the entry point for an inquiry into Serbia’s place in a transcultural network defined by trade, diplomacy, and the traffic of people, goods, and ideas.