Svetlana Maltseva
Saint Petersburg State University, Russia
Right from the time of its formation in the late 12th–13th centuries, in the time of its heyday in the 14th century and during its last flourishing in the late 14th — first half of the 15th century Serbian architecture always combined Byzantine and Western European elements with the local ideological concepts which marked the originality of the national architectural tradition. My paper will focus on Serbian architecture of the late period. While Byzantine traditions were predominating both in typology and style of church buildings, Western influences manifested themselves in some particular elements, mainly decorative. At the same time, there are some monuments of particular importance where Western influence penetrated much deeper and affected both the compositional and structural elements. One of the most interesting examples of such a synthesis is the church of Pantocrator at Dečani. The exterior of the church looks typical of the so called Raška school, yet in the interior the local traditions are transformed by late gothic forms. In the first quarter of the 15th century, when the ideas of Renaissance reached the Balkan littoral, masters coming from this region were engaged in constructing the church at Resava monastery. While preserving typically Byzantine composition of the five-domed church, the masters create new accents in the proportions and decoration of the church. Although in recent works by some prominent specialists late Serbian architecture is viewed as merely one of local variations of Byzantine tradition, we can’t discard the Western influences. These issues will be discussed in more detail in my paper.