Marquetry portrait of Historical Figure - Lukijan Mušicki (1777-1837) Collage

It is a special challenge to express in this wood technique a classic historical portrait - this portrait is Lukian Mušicki, almost the only historically-known personality born in my native place, in Temerin. The marquetry interpretation was made in the portrait of the Serbian portraitist of the 19th century, Novak Radonić (1826-1890), which is preserved and exhibited in the Cabinet of the president of Matica Srpska in Novi Sad, Republic of Serbia. ------------------------------------------------------------- Lukian Mušicki He was born as Luka Mušicki in Temerin on 27 January 1777. His early education was most carefully conducted by his parents, first he was sent to a Serbian grammar school in Temerin; a German school in Titel; gymnasia (high schools) in Novi Sad and Segedin; and finally took up studying philosophy and law at the University of Pest, though aesthetics and poetry were always his favourite subjects. Shortly afterwards he became one of the secretaries of Metropolitan Stefan Stratimirović at Sremski Karlovci where he was subjected to a rigorous ecclesiastic supervision. His superiors were suspicious of his translating ancient Latin-speaking poets, like Horace, Lucian, Virgil and Ovid, whenever he had free time, but even more so when they found out that he knew Horace's De arte poetica by heart. Here his intentions of entering upon an academic career was for a time thwarted by his collision with his superiors. In 1802, after he had taken monastic vows and a new name ("Lukijan"), he was permitted to establish himself as privatdozent, lecturing at the Theological Seminary in Karlovci. Mušicki wrote extensively on aesthetic subjects, and poetry, and as a critic he had considerable influence, but only outside of the monastic community. It was not until 1812, however, that he attained the rank of archimandrite at the Šišatovac Monastery. Born in Temerin, he became a monk, and later abbot of a monastery in Fruška Gora, whose religious poetry in Church Slavonic, a language distant from the spoken koine, but the only literary language of his time, was recognised and valued by the Serbian Orthodox Church. His secular poetry in vernacular tongue was frowned upon, to the point that he was threatened with defrocking, unless he repented, which in the end he did and stopped writing in what will only be justified as a written language by Vuk Karadžić. In the opinion of his contemporaries, Mušicki revived the glories of the 18th century period of pseudo-classicism, and scholars such as Pavel Jozef Šafárik called Mušicki "Prince of Serbian Poetry", Petar I Petrović-Njegoš referred to him as "a genius of our race," while Đura Daničić said Mušicki was "the father of contemporary Serbian literature;" this is friendly hyperbole. Jernej Kopitar hailed him as "the Serbian Horace". While such judgements are naturally somewhat exaggerated, there is no doubt that Mušicki takes a very high place among Serbian poets of his day

Collage:Woodcut on Wood

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:21.3 W x 23.6 H x 0.5 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.