Nobilitiy in Serbian Visual Culture of the 18th Century
What was life of the Serbian people like in the Habsburg Monarchy, under the rule of Empress Maria Theresa? How did members of the Serbian nobility obtain their titles, and what made them different from the Austrian nobles? What made the families of Tekelija, Čarnojević, Stratimirović, Rašković, and Georgijević stand out from the rest? Answers to these questions will be provided in the new major exhibition in the Gallery of Matica Srpska, opening on Friday, February 14, at 7:00 PM, titled Nobility in Serbian Visual Culture of the 18th Century.
The exhibition Nobility in Serbian Visual Culture of the 18thCentury came about as the result of the doctoral dissertation and years of research by Dr. Aleksandra Čelovski, curator of the Gallery of Matica Srpska. The audience will be introduced to the life of the nobility gathered under the patronage of the Metropolitanate of Karlovci during the 18th century through several thematic sections: As part of the representative public, Blue blood and virtue: Types of nobility, Education as a privilege, Patrons and benefactors, Family gallery: Marriage strategies of the nobility, Nobility and endowment. Through over 80 works of art, items, and archival materials, the exhibition examines the phenomenon of nobility from various perspectives, including the acquisition of noble status, adaptation of an individual’s personal identity to the demands of the representative public through portrait commissions, contributions to the Church and endowment activities, patronage of arts and culture, the construction of luxurious mansions and castles, and the selection of burial sites.
The exhibition of the nobility in the 18th century takes us back to a period when the word nobility did not refer to imaginary characters, but to a genuine social class that enjoyed privileged status due to its merits and virtues. The true story of joining the ranks of nobility, the hierarchical division of status, the levels of power and privileges they held, is quite complex. Status differences were evident through the ownership of estates, family crests, epithets in names, or styles of clothing, jewelry, and weaponry. In the exhibition rooms, through careful observation of details in paintings, visitors will analyze models of proving that one has belonged to the representative public, while also identifying possible insincerity within this class. Additionally, after attaining noble status, Serbian families entered the ranks of the privileged and sought to advocate for the broader Serbian population. For all these reasons, observing nobility raises challenging questions about power distribution, the values that grant power, and the possibilities it entails—whether privileges were used solely for personal gain or for the common good. Although the lives of some noble families did not match European standards, the honor and a certain pride in belonging to the nobility were always present.
In addition to portraits of Habsburg rulers and Serbian nobles from the Gallery of Matica srpska, the exhibition will feature portraits from the collections of the National Museum of Serbia and the Belgrade City Museum, as well as from the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest, the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, the Serbian Church Museum in Szentendre, and the Treasury of the Serbian Orthodox Eparchy of Timișoara. Essential documents and objects for understanding nobility as a social phenomenon include charters granting and confirming noble status from the collections of the Historical Museum of Serbia, the Military Museum, the Archives of Vojvodina, the Museum of Vojvodina, the Museum of the Serbian Orthodox Church, and the City Museum of Vršac. Furthermore, contemporary technology has been used to showcase the appearance of noble mansions built in Banat and Bačka, with their original splendor and representativeness shown as a result of a project of digital castle interior reconstruction using artificial intelligence.
During the exhibition, a rich accompanying program will be organized, featuring lectures by experts in modern social and cultural history on Fridays at 7:00 PM, as well as guided tours by the author and curators on weekends at 1:00 PM and 5:00 PM. For children and teenagers, thematic creative workshops will be held on Saturdays from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM and from 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM. The program schedule can be followed on the official website and social media pages of the Gallery of Matica Srpska.
The exhibition will be open to the public until June 1, 2025.
The realization of the exhibition and the catalog was made possible by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia.
