Aleksandra Nitić
Željka Temerinski

ZLATOVEZ SA IMENOM CARA IVANA ALEKSANDRA IZ CRKVE SVETOG NIKOLE KOD STANIČENJA – GRAĐA I REKONSTRUKCIJA
GOLD EMBROIDERY WITH THE NAME OF THE EMPEROR IVAN ALEXANDER FROM THE CHURCH OF ST. NICHOLAS AT STANIČENJE DOCUMENTS AND ECONSTRUCTION

Journal 1/2005 (Museum of Applied Art), pages 101-108

UDC:
746.3.025.4(497.11)

Summary:
The fragments of the gold embroidery with the name and the title of the Bulgarian emperor Ivan Alexander (1331/1332- 1371), recovered in 1974 in the St. Nicholas church at Staničenjo near Pirot (1331/32), are being preserved in The National Museum in Belgrade. These are the fragments of the vestments of the emperor Ivan Alexander, made during his rule. The gilded silver string, with silver string and single threaded silk string embroidery was done on silver fabric, of diagonal weaving. Today, the fabric and the embroidery strings are ochre.

In this paper we deal with the reconstruction of the embroidered textile, apart from its detailed description, made during its first conservation in 1977, and then during the second in 1998, together with the assumptions about possible reconstruction that was not made during the conservations. The reconstruction of the fabric, during the second conservation, was made on the basis of those better-preserved parts of the gold embroidery and the direction of the woof, as well as the information offered by the photo documentation made during the first conservation treatment. As the documentation at our disposal did not give detailed information about the appearance of the fragments of the fabric in situ, in the latter conservation treatment the starting point was the reconstruction made during the first one, which consequently underwent certain changes. It should be stated that it is not possible to give any certain reconstruction of the fabric without an investigation into the complete field documentation.

During the second conservation treatment, 75 fragments were found. The dimensions of the then reconstructed strips are: the first 8.5 × 49 cm, the second 8.5 × 48 cm, the third 8 × 46.5 cm, the fourth 8.3 × 48 cm, the fifth 8.2 × 47.5 cm, the sixth 7.5 × 47.5 cm; the dimensions of the fragment 24 are 7.5 x 9.3 cm. Strips with numbers 1 to 5 had the same motif: a plant with a flower and buds – a deer – a plant with a flower and buds – a two headed eagle – a plant with buds – a crane – a plant with buds and a flower –an inscribed plate surrounded by plants. The sixth strip is decorated with a motif of a double arcade, above which one eagle is preserved. The photographs shot during the first conservation that witness that some fragments had been lost between the first and the second conservation, indicate that at first there was one more composition with motifs in a wreath, apart from the reconstructed ones.

Detailed descriptions and photographs of the fragments of the embroidered textile from St. Nicholas at Staničenjo will be, together with the data from the field documentation and a text by R. Ljubinković, as well as the conservation photodocumentation, is the starting point for new attempts to reconstruct the fabric and the vestment.

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