From the horizontal to the vertical genealogical image of the Nemanjic dynasty

Abstract

Sometime in the XIV century, towards the end of the second or beginning of the third decade, the 'horizontal genealogical image' of the Serbian rulers gave way to a new depiction of their genealogy. We find the earliest surviving Nemanjic family tree, painted in a vertically arranged composition in the narthex of Gracanica, followed by those in Pec, Decani, Mateic and Studenica. The appearance of the new type of image presenting the Serbian dynastic genealogy was, on the one hand, due to the problems caused by the ever lengthening series of rulers' portraits. They led to the deformation of the thematic programmes and did not correspond to the dynamic spirit of 'Palaeologan renaissance' art. On the other hand, from the mid-XIII century there was a obvious intention to link the idea of a 'chosen people' and the genealogy of Christ with the Nemanjic dynasty. This process unfolded simultaneously in literature, royal charters and visual art. It was facilitated by the fact that presentations of Christ's genealogy - the Tree of Jesse - were introduced in the programmes of Serbian churches from the second half of the XIII century. A correspondence had already been established between the presentations of Christ's genealogy and the portraits of the Nemanjic family included in the broader thematic ensembles inspired by dynastic ideology, in Sopocani and, subsequently, in Moraca, Arilje and the King's Church in Studenica. Even in the description of the family tree of the Serbian dynasty itself, the notions of 'pious lineage', 'the holy root', 'the branch of good fruit', 'the blessed shoots' etc. were used in the written sources. In this way, a process gradually matured along the path towards creating a dynastic picture of the house of Nemanjic that was iconographically coordinated to the Tree of Jesse. However, the 'vertical' family tree of the Nemanjici was not a simple transposition of the 'horizontal genealogy' into the structure of the new iconographic scheme. It is possible to notice significant contextual differences between the two types of the Serbian dynastic picture, especially regarding the presentation of the rulers' wives or the rulers' daughters, or male relatives from the lateral branches. A number of questions that had earlier been of particular importance, such as the order of succession to the throne through the direct bloodline, became submerged in a multitude of new messages and slowly lost significance. The 'vertical' family tree of the Nemanjici focused far more on the proclamation of general dynastic messages. As a more developed and complex picture than the 'horizontal' genealogy, it was able to convey more carefully nuanced details about what effect dynastic history had on the awareness of the court. Apart from that, in contrast to the presentations of XIII century 'horizontal genealogies' that illustrated Nemanja and his direct successors as monks, the new type of dynastic picture quite clearly stressed the 'imperial' nature of the ruler's family. A similar change of meaning can also be noted in contemporaneous royal charters. One should view this interesting phenomenon through the prism of the increasingly tangible influences of Byzantine imperial ideology on Serbian dynastic thought. The distinct influence of Byzantine perceptions can also be recognized in the motive of the ruler's investiture being performed by God himself, depicted at the top of the Nemanjic family tree. Therefore, the new Serbian genealogical picture reflected much more clearly than its predecessor, the Byzantine teachings about power, which blended the 'dynastic principle' with dogma regarding the providential election of the ruler. In later monuments, where a composite family tree was depicted, linking the Nemanjic dynasty to the Byzantine and the Bulgarian royal families (Mateic, and perhaps even Studenica), the concept of the 'new Israel' was redefined in Serbian imperial ideology, according to the universalistic views adopted from Byzantium. Although all the essential iconographic details of dynastic genealogy in the form of the family tree were of Byzantine origin, no credible testimonies were found in scientific research that the theme itself was designed in artistic form in Byzantium. Hence, one cannot exclude the possibility that the Nemanjic family tree was an authentic, iconographic creation devised in Serbia. With the necessary caution, here, we should stress that the Serbian environment was quite singular because it had a long lasting and, moreover sacred dynasty. For that reason it was particularly absorbed in dynastic issues and the idea of 'a new chosen people'. That environment traveled the path to a 'vertical' dynastic picture slowly, following the evolutionary logic of its own culture and art.