The Metal and Jewellery Department of the Museum of Applied Art keeps ten rings with embedded antiquity intaglios and one with a cameo. Three rings date back from the Roman period and the others are from the Middle Ages and the Modern Age.

Antiquity intaglios have a long life for they are preserved through inheritance, but also embedded in the post-antiquity rings thus acquiring a secondary role. The motifs of these intaglios are mythological personalities deities (Jupiter, Apollo, Roma, Serapis), centaurs, Medusa, syncretistic deities (Isis/Fortuna-Victoria, Apollo-Dyonisus), genre-scene with the representation of shepherd and a portrait of a male.

The rings were obtained by purchasing and their provenance is therefore unknown (with the exception of the three rings from Novo Brdo and its surroundings). Stylistic analysis of the intaglio motifs showed that they belong to the period between the 2^nd and 4^th centuries.

The intaglios in the rings of this Collection were made in the most sought-after semiprecious stones of the Antiquity – in the carnelian and jasper, while the cameo was made from white opal. Their beauty derives not only from the material in which they were made but also in the quality of the engraved image which shows a clear and precise work of an experienced master, originated from one of the leading glyptic workshops. The craftsmen and tradesmen came mostly from the East and, from time to time, they settled in this region. On the other hand, they had wealthy clientele in Novo Brdo, a great and rich Middle Ages centre, ordering precious rings with the highest quality antiquity intaglios. These rings were made as an expression of budding interest for the Antiquity which, influenced by the Italian Renaissance, appeared in our region, but also as a possible expression of reconciliation with Christian ideas in the second half of the 14^th and throughout the 15^th centuries.

Among the total of thirty majolica objects originating from Italian workshops now kept in the Museum of Applied Art in Belgrade, six date back to the 16^th century. The Renaissance collection comprises bigger shallow and deep plates and floor tiles. The objects that are dated to the 16^th century were donated to the Museum in the first decade after founding (1950) and made up the very beginnings of the above mentioned Collection.

From Deruta (Umbria), from the first decades of the 16^th century, our Museum Collection keeps a plate (Fig. 1; Inv. No. 130; Ro=21cm, Rd=8.7 cm), decorated in the manner characteristic of this Centre. The upper surface shows the head of a Roman emperor in profile and the back shows a modified letter M.

The next centre which is the source of several plates from the Museum of Applied Art collection is Montelupo in Toscana. It was determined by the analogous method that they were made in the second half of the 16th century in Montelupo or, possibly, in Firenza and Faenza. The first of them, a deep plate on a high, hollow bottom (Fig. 2; Inv. No. 131; Ro=24 cm, Rd=11cm, H=5.5 cm) has an architectural motive in its middle– a house and a quartieri ornament along its rim that is filled with plant ornaments.

The second plate on a flat bottom (Fig. 3; Inv. No. 121; Ro=31 cm, Rd=15 cm) has on the inside an a rombi decoration painted in blue.

The third plate (Fig. 4; Inv. No. 120; Ro=31.5 cm, Rd=13 cm) has central medallion with a stylised plant (a lily?) and the rims decorating by interconnected ellipses filled with geometric ornaments.

Other examples, most similar to the tiles kept in the Museum of Applied Art, adorn the floors of church buildings in Naples and their production is attributed to the Naples workshops from the 15th and early 16th century. They are of elongated, hexagonal shape. Dimensions vary (Fig. 5, 6; Inv. No. 1809, Inv. No. 7634; Fig. 5: 19x9.5x1 cm, Fig. 6: 21x11x1.6 cm) but their shape and colours of their stylised plant ornaments are almost identical. Therefore, they may be parts of a single floor, or, perhaps, products of a single workshop.

The history of Irina Simić legacy is insufficiently well known and has only been partly reconstructed to date. The legacy, which the Belgrader Irina Simić bequeathed to the City of Belgrade in 1975, is kept in the Museum of Applied Art in Belgrade. It contains 194 objects: paintings, antique furniture, carpets, jewellery, artistically crafted metal objects, ceramics, porcelain, glass, etc.

Irina Simić (1915-1988) was born in Moscow, in a bourgeois family which, immediately after the outbreak of the October Revolution, emigrated to Yugoslavia. Irina's father, Nikola Kopitin, was an engineer. Irina Simić compiled her collection of the works of art together with her husband, Ljubomir Simić. They married in Belgrade in 1957, and they contributed works to the collection either individually, from their respective family inheritance, or collected them in the course of their life together.

The silverware collection from Irina Simić legacy comprises 25 objects, mostly tableware and small useful and decorative objects and decoration that are kept in the Metal and Jewellery Department. Most of the objects from the collection date back to the 19^th century and first decades of the 20^th century, from the area of Western Europe and Russia.

Among the objects from the collection, particularly worthy of attention is the serving tray (Cat. No. 5), made about 1880, a product of a reputable Vienna company, J. C. Klinkosch, samovar (Cat. No. 6), made in Warsaw in 1845-1847 in the workshop owned by Messrs. K. Klima and Szewski, as well as parts of a tea service (Cat. No. 7 and 8) made in St. Petersburg 1844/45.

An exception in this collection is a silver chalice (Cat. No. 1), made in the 17^th century in one of the famous Augsburg workshops. Besides, the collection also harbours a specimen of the industrial design: sugar tongs (Cat. No. 20) from the 3300 tableware set, which was designed in 1951 by Kurt Mayer for the famous German factory WMF.

The silverware collection as well as the entire Irina Simić legacy was not produced by systematic collection but rather constitutes a body of objects of different provenance, intended use, and artistic value. Many objects from the collection are actually parts of bigger functional units which were lost. Regardless of these losses that are observed from the museological perspective, the Irina Simić legacy is nevertheless an important document about the middle-class lifestyle in Serbia and the aspirations of Serbian middle-class to maintain its cultural connections and values throughout different social environments.

The appearance of photo albums in mid 19^th century was directly linked with the invention of a new medium and the need to collect and preserve the family memories and recollections in one place. As the most important visual evidence of family history and continuity, the album was kept in a clearly visible place, in the salon of a middle-class home, the central space of family gathering.

One of the representative objects that have been preserved to date in the Museum of Applied Art Collection, is a photo album that belonged to the family of Anastas Jovanović, the first Serbian photographer and distinguished member of the Serbian middle class– elite of the 19^th century. The album is a valuable unit, witness not only to the history of this esteemed Belgrade family but also to some aspects of private life in Serbia of this period.

The album of Jovanović family was made about 1880. It is a luxury object that contains 80 photographs–portraits. The structure of the album, the greatest part of which is made up of the portraits of immediate family members, fully reflects a new structure of the middle-class family, with all its characteristics: strengthening of the family as a group, strong emotional ties between its members, clear division of gender roles, focus on the child – heir. Other photographs in the album – portraits of the Jovanović family relatives and close friends, pictures of the members of Obrenović dynasty, famous politicians and soldiers, reveal the family and friendship ties but also the national and patriotic feelings of the album owner.

This paper revisits the role and contribution of Mrs. Savka Subotić (1834–1918), a prominent public personality, a versatile, educated citizen of Novi Sad in the cultural development of multicultural Vojvodina and Slavonija in the second half of the 19^th century. Written sources indicate her important role in the recognition and reform of traditional textile crafts, part of the Serbian material cultural heritage. The paper underlines the fact that Savka Subotić, according to what we have learnt so far, is the first woman in our region to engage in textile design inspired by ethnic motifs.

The conceptual basis of her work comprises very original, at the time quite advanced but also utopian views on the revival of domestic industry. She believed that the recognition and reform of these crafts would encourage and improve the economy, family standard of living, and, consequently, the status and standard of living for women, creators of these handicrafts. This, in turn, would enable the strengthening of the national economy and national culture. These ideas were in line with the efforts for national independence and, therefore, in line with the struggle for a better status of women in the society.

Intent on putting her ideas to practice, she was tirelessly exploring women's handicrafts around Slavonija and Srem countryside. She participated in the National Exhibition held in Budapest in 1885 where she displayed textile objects made after her design (parts and accessories of the town costume and town room furniture). These objects are inspired by traditional textile handicrafts and decorated with ethnic motifs.

She also deserves credit for the reforms made on the linen from which parts of traditional folk costumes were made. These reforms were implemented in the folk costumes of Srem and Slavonija.

She also had followers in the theoretical field. She was a role model for Jelica Bernadzikovska and influenced Dragutin Inkiostri Medenjak and Vid Vuletić Vukasović. The data on textile handicrafts that she left are still valid and used by modern experts for traditional and artistic textile crafts.

Amongst the items in the Collection of ancient and rare books in the Regional Museum in Jagodina (Central Serbia), there are five that originally belonged to the private library of Milenko Vesnić (1862-1921), well-known Serbian university professor of law, diplomat, and politician, who was either the author or translator of all five. The books contain several personal seals and original ex-libris stickers of Vesnić, clearly denoting their proprietor. There are also several interesting inscriptions, ex-votos and letters, which have survived ordeal of his personal library.

From the point of art history and prosopography, the books may contribute to our better understanding of the bookbinding craftsmanship, the history of Serbian ex-libris, and last but not least of the personality and important scholarly work of Milenko Vesnić.

The paper contextualises the works of five photographers (the author of the text being one of them) who belong to the generation that have recently graduated from various art academies in Belgrade. Common to all the selected authors is that they construct their works as complex structures. By rethinking not only the genre and aesthetic conventions, but also semantic potentials of the medium itself, they treat photography as a powerful discursive practice.

Aleksandrija Ajduković investigates dressing codes as indicators of social identity, yet also offers an alternative way of representing femininity. Whether she photographs women who, in a public context, wear clothes with wild cat motifs, or female pensioners, Ajduković interacts with ordinary women and encourages them to pose as fashion models.

Katarina Radović analyses the process of an average observer's identification with the images of women present in mass media. By applying the technique of mimicry, she carefully constructs various settings and then acts out and parodies a number of imaginary characters in front of the camera. Her work questions the ideological connotations of the dominant media images.

Goran Micevski, in his work Finnish Report, conflates fiction and factography. Documentary photographs made during his stay in Finland are integrated with the text in which he comments on his experience as a traveller, in order to effect a shift of perspective which challenges the traditional tourist gaze. Tijana Pakić strives to minimise the presence of the photo camera while documenting intimate moments of her family's everyday life. Even though all the images are unstaged, the author invests them with emphasised atmospheric and enigmatic quality by carefully choosing the scenes and reducing the background information to a minimum.

The starting point of Paula Muhr's series Tata is a traumatic situation created by her father, who had abandoned his family home, yet left most of his clothes behind. From time to time he comes back to the house to try on the clothes which he then takes with him. By approaching this ritual from an objective perspective, the author staged pseudo-fashion photographs of her father who, imitating professional models, posed at different locations around the house. The images are montaged with the father's highly subjective statements about himself.

The term minimalism has been in use for fifty years to describe artistic phenomena based on formal simplicity and strictness. From American artists such as Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, Robert Morris, Sol LeWitt, Richard Serra and Carl Andre to the theatre work of Robert Wilson; from graphics by A. G. Fronzoni to the music of La Monte Young and Terry Riley, all the way to Michael Nyman; from Raymond Carver's short stories to Giorgio Armani and Issey Miyake fashion; from the architecture of John Pawson, Claudio Silvestrin, Peter Zunthor, Tadao Ando, Michael Gabellini, Alberto Campo Baeza to the “London Minimum” design representatives.

These are areas of expression, which often do not communicate much, but which, in their complexity, are the proof of the creation and development, in different geographic areas and eras, of the trend that is based on the idea of utter simplicity, the origin of which should be sought in the earliest history.

The important forerunners were Luis Barragan in architecture, John Cage in music, Martha Graham in dance, Michelangelo Antonioni in film, suprematism in art, T-shirt in fashion, Max Bill and Dieter Rams in the area of design.

In the field of design, in the last few years, there has been present radical simplification, which, at first, even caused a crisis in major companies of the sector, which then had to adapt their production catalogues to the increasingly present need for simplicity, formal minimalism and clarity of expression linked to the prevailing use of natural materials (wood, stone...).

Claudio Silvestrin is one of the most prominent representatives of the phenomenon which expanded geographically and culturally to the entire world. Having formed in Milan with A. G. Fronzoni, Silvestrin graduated in architecture in London. In England, together with John Pawson, he contributed greatly to the creation and revival of interest in the basic values such as earth, air, fire and water, which were to become the main foundations of his architecture.

In the attempt to banish from everyday life everything that is considered useless or superfluous, Silvestrin coherently followed his personal vision of simple, but not simplistic, architecture, with broad philosophical and spiritual implications.

The first pieces intended for interior design that he crafted within the concept of his innovative architecture, were later elaborated and included in the production range by some of the leading European companies from the industry.

Manmade products, but also the objects our surroundings, acquire a certain meaning subject to the way we treat them. Design is always associated with material production and, therefore, does not reside in the medium of language but reveals its meaning indirectly, through symbols. Design symbolism is as multifaceted as is its functionality: it can be perceived through the use and production technology, through the economics of its exploitation and environmental impact, as well as through the aesthetic and symbolic effect it has on us. In this context, the levels of a designed object's meaning, namely the levels of its symbolism, through which the meaning is revealed in the most graphic manner, are also different. There appears a whole range of the designed objects' meanings which were not present in the course of their conceptualisation and production but which develop throughout their „life” in a specific environment. A for-use object is real; it has a real task to serve a purpose. However, as an aesthetic and symbolic object it also has an „unreal” dimension, which is demonstrated through the mission of awakening the imaginary. The meaning and symbolism intertwine and make up its complete meaning. It is precisely the symbolism as the unconventionality of meaning that enables the designed object to speak up through its beauty and to aesthetise our existence.