Late Antiquity and afterwards Early Byzantine fortress Gradina in the village of Postenje (fig. 1:1-3) was built on the northern slopes of Rogozina Mountain (c. 780 metres altitude) in South-West Serbia. Found within the fortress and surrounded by a wall were about thirty objects, the oldest dating from the 3^rd century. The settlement was destroyed at the end of the 6^th or the beginning of the 7^th century. The majority of glass finds from Gradina in the village of Postenje, as well as other moveable archeological material, originate from the objects made during the 6^th century, the time of Justinian's reconstruction of the fortress. Window pane fragments were found both in churches and in profane objects. Out of a total of about 100 fragments of glass vessels, the largest number is the parts of bowls and goblets from which is distinguished the many different types. The smaller number is the fragments of bottles and lamps. Although the highest number of glass fragments is found to belong to the period of the Emperor Justinian I, some vessels could have been in use even before the 6^th century. Over a longer period of time, during Late Antiquity (4^th – beginning of 5^th century), up to and including the Early Byzantine period (6^th century), hemispherical bowls with deeper receptacle (fig. 2:3-4), hemispherical beakers (fig. 3:1-4), conical goblets (fig. 3:5), stemmed goblets or lamps (fig. 3:6-8) and jugs (fig. 4:1-3) could have been used. All these vessels have similarities with the materials of this period, of the 4^th / 5^th century and the 6^th century. While hemispherical bowls and beakers are most common during the 4^th and early 5^th century, some have been found on some sites of the 6^th century. On the territory of Serbia, conical goblets are found in the 4th and the 4^th / 5^th century layer on all other sites except Gradina on Jelica where they were found in the 6^th century layer. In contrast, although a larger number of stemmed goblets or lamps was found on Early Byzantine sites in the 5^th / 6^th and the 6^th century layer, a smaller number dates from the 4^th century. On all other sites, except Early Byzantine fortress Gradina on Jelica, hemispherical bowls with shallow receptacle (fig. 2:1-2) date from the 4^th century. On the territory of Serbia, all conical receptacle lamps with hollow stem date exclusively from the 6^th century, Caricin grad being the site where the highest number of lamps with hollow stem was found. Apart from hemispherical lamps with deeper receptacle, on sites in Serbia there are no examples of lamps with shallow receptacle as those found in Gradina in Postenje. However, judging by the similar examples from the Black Sea, they also could have been used in the settlement during the 6^th century. Glass lamps have been found both in sacred and profane objects in Gradina in Postanje.

Judging by the high number of glass vessels in Gradina in Postanje that is present on a number of sites during the 4^th century and the beginning of the 5^th century, and in some of the 5^th and the 6^th century layers too, the continuity of life can be proven in Gradina in Postanje in the 5^th century, though this horizon has not been established yet on this site in architectural pre–building and restoration of objects. The limited number of vessels of a simple type and of a relatively uniform glass colour in Gradina in Postanje indicates local production. Though it has not been proven yet in the settlement itself, local production could have existed, as in some settlements of Late Antiquty – Mitrovica / Sirmium, Gamzigrad / Romuliana – or as in some Early Byzantine settlements (In Caricin grad, for example, a group of bricks are in situ in a circular or semi-circular shape, which might have been a part of a furnace; furthermore, fragments of a massive dome-shaped vessel that might have been part of a retort were also found, which could serve as proof for the existence of glass making. In Gornji Streoci on Kosovo the raw materials for glass making were found).

Gradina in Postanje is one of a large number of hillside settlements that have been identified on the territory of Serbia, but glass is found on and published about only a few. Although a relatively small number of glass vessel types have been found in Gradina in Postanje, similar types have been found in other Late Antiquity and Early Byzantine sites in Serbia and neighbouring countries (Bulgaria, Romania, Greece), where an assortment of similar glass vessels were used.

Lavish reliquary, formerly owned by Despotissa Barbara Frankopan Brankovic, presently in the Treasury of Franciscan Monastery in Trsat near Rijeka, has rarely been of any interest to the researchers. This unique cult object is formed in the shape of symbolic branch made of silver gilded tubes with naturalistically crafted flowers, leaves and thorns. It consists of cast larger and smaller fragments of relics on frames, marked with inscriptions and decorated with filigree, and three encolpia on the middle axes also with relics, decorated with pearls, precious and semi-precious stones.

As the inscriptions had not been read or had been read incorrectly in older literature, not shading any light on the origin of the idea and the period of creation, a new research lasting several days was conducted during 2011. Following a close analysis of the reliquary, thirty eight inscriptions in Old Serbian and Greek languages were found, and the inscriptions from the lost frames, recorded in the sources and photo documentation, were added as thirty ninth and fortieth. The paper gives an analysis of the reliquary, reconstruction of the original organization of the relics (based on the old photographs and descriptions from 1648), copy of all inscriptions and formats of thirty – two preserved frames. New readings provide correction to all previous editions and this is the first time that all inscriptions on the existing frames have been read, including not so visible inscription on the rim of the panaghiarion.

Paleographic analysis has shown that five different engravers have been engraving the inscriptions. The first craftsman has done the engraving on the back of the panaghiarion (No. 15) and the holy relics frame (No. 30). The second has done the most of engraving (No. 1-5, 8, 9, 11, 13, 18, 19, 22-29, 33-38, 40) and engraving on the rim of the panaghiarion (No. 15). The third has done the engraving on the frames No. 6, 7, 31 and 39, the fourth on the frames No. 20 and 32, while the fifth has done engraving in Greek on the frame No. 14.

Although it is a view in historiography that the reliquary got its present shape after the holy relics had been taken to the West, iconographic analogies with the motif of elliptical vines on the reliquaries and icons with the themes of celebrating the Holy Mother, being present in Eastern cult practice and art since the middle of the 15^th century, point to this direction for the further research of the reliquary of Despotissa Barbara.

This paper analyses the bracket clock from the collection of the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb, signed on the arch of the decorative plate Albertus Fromanteel London, and on the back plate A = Fromanteel (the name of the place covered). After conducted research, it has been established that the original clock, the mechanism and the dial of which have been preserved, was made around 1680 and that it is one of the earliest pendulum regulated clocks. It was made in the workshop of the Fromanteels, the first clockmakers making bracket clocks in England, and Ahasuerus senior and his son Abraham most probably worked together on making it. Apart from that, it has been discovered that on the signature covered later on the Hague was marked as the place where the clock was made, which makes it unique as there are no records that the Fromanteels ever worked in that city. The so called tic-tac escapement is very rare, as well as an early use of the additional seconds dial. Based on archive data and some technical characteristics, it is assumed that the clock was made in London workshop of the famous Dutch clockmakers family, and that the Hague signature was an attempt to enter the local market. When in the second decade of the 18^th century arched dial become fashionable, the semi-circular attachment was placed on the decorative plate giving information on the clock maker–Albertus Fromanteel, probably the imaginary clockmaker whose name was mistakenly concluded based on the initial A written on the original signature. The clock went through its last alteration at the end of the 18^th century when it was placed into a black glass-covered case with late Baroque and Classicist decorative and functional elements. The detailed analysis of the clock, its original and additional parts, gave us an important new insight in the study of early pendulum clocks within European context. Formanteel clock certainly is one of the most valuable assets of the Museum of Arts and Crafts collection and serves as a proof that Croatia played an important role in the European cultural milieu historically and nowadays alike.

A pair of identical porphyry vases from the Royal Palace is a part of the art collection of the Palace Complex of Dedinje. Namely, they are pieces of art designed by the royal architect E. A. Petitot (1727-1801) at the Royal Palace of Philip I, The Duke of Parma (1748-1765). The research conducted up to the present date, as well as the published papers, point out the existence of three more pairs of identically shaped vases made in the last quarter of the 18^th century, one of which can at present be found in the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and the other two in private collections, whereas the vases of the royal collection have not been accessible to the public for a long time.

The vases are the finest examples of the Neoclassical style of French applied art, the signature mark of the most prosperous part of the reign of Louis XV. Identical in size, material and modeling, they were made in the shape of a cup on a base, encrusted with gilded drapes, with cast iron handles in the shape of lions. Gilded leaves with the bodies of two snakes coiled around make the base of the vase core.

The powerful sculptoral decoration of the vases emphasizes exactly their complex symbolism. Thus, the figures of lions glorify the profane and sacral power of the sovereign, pointing out as well the constant alertness of the guardians of his power and strength. As the symbols of the beginning and the end, the eternal cycle of birth and death, the representation of snakes coiled around the foot may be interpreted in the sense of the transient nature of time and destiny as well as the sovereign's power that can overcome everything.

Judging by their artistic modeling and sculptural decoration, it is assumed that the porphyry vases were ordered by an aristocrat, or were a part of the decorating concept of a royal palace space. Porphyry as a symbol of the sovereign's dignity – decorated with figural representations, symbols of the sovereign's power and strength and their everlasting nature – is a piece of art which could have been created in the framework of the politics of the sovereign's presentation.

As such, the vases represent highly valuable pieces of art and they certainly held a significant place within the framework of the politics of the Yugoslav monarch's presentation.

In the first half of the 19^thcentury, both glass objects for everyday use and those considered to be souvenirs, became more accessible to a larger number of people due to a drop in price of raw materials and improvement of work techniques. Different techniques and ways of glass decorating flourished during the Biedermeier period. One of the most popular techniques was transparent enamelled colour painting on glasses and on window panes in churches or other important objects. Samuel Mohn made that type of glasses, and his son Gottlob improved the technique and revealed the secrets of glass painting tomany painters from Viennese porcelain manufactory. One of the most famous artists is Anton Kothgasser (1796-1851). He signed glasses made of glass with his initials A.K. A high number of objects were made in his workshop, but it is difficult to attribute them to Kothgasser himself or some other painter. This paper will analyse glass objects that are a part of collection of Zagreb museums (The Museum of Arts and Crafts and The Marton Museum), as well as painted windows in The Swiss House in Maksimir Park in Zagreb. The windows were painted by A. Kothgasser according to the plan by Eduard Gurk (1801 – 1841), a Viennese landscape painter, and were modeled after the Luxemburg Castle outside Vienna as a symbol of romantic inspiration. The purpose of this paper is to shed some light to objects in Zagreb and the connection between Biedermeier artists and their clients from Zagreb.

Jewish community in the Balkans goes through a sequence of transformations during the 19^th century. For Jews who live at the territory Serbia, changes begin with the process of liberation from the Ottoman rule, followed with the founding and developing of Serbian state. The community had to function firstly in the Principality and later on Kingdom of Serbia, as well as under the turbulent circumstances of dynastic changes at the beginning of 20^th century that led to the formation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Each of these phases influenced the shifts in a shape of the cultural model, and directed the relation between communal privacy and public identity integral to the wider sphere of the society.

Ketubbot made by the end of 19^th and the beginning of 20^th century became serial printed prototypes, which support the ideal of contemporary civil state and modern society. They were produced all over the Balkans in lithographic printing offices. Their visual forms inherited the old tradition of representing the triumphal arch with symbolic decoration.

They carry Jewish symbols like Magen David, Decalogue, or menorah, but also include state symbols like Serbian coat of arms, as well as emblematic pictograms of civil marriage and marital harmony like Concordia Maritalis, then putto and symbols of love - hearts. The illustration of this thesis is the examples of ketubbot printed in large Balkan cities: Belgrade, Sarajevo, Sophia and Thessaloniki from the end of XIX century to the beginning of XX.

By replacing illuminated ketubbot with serial lithographic prints, Balkan Jews were participating in the contemporary social trends, but also creating their own visual culture, according to their personal needs. Holding on consistently to the emphasizing of an outstanding identity, they enriched visual decoration of ritual items by incorporating novelties in the manner of actual styles and contemporary achievements of Fin de siècle. The acceptance of social norms of wider community and civil concept of marriage, influenced the choice of visual representations, which found their place on ketubbot, bridging the gap between traditional and contemporary on the turn of the century.

In the period between the two world wars, a large number of the citizens of Belgrade lived in rented apartments. Rental apartments for the poor tenants were built and leased in all parts of the town. In the central parts of town, the poor rented apartments in unhygienic and dilapidated apartment buildings remaining from the 19^th century and units located in courtyards of detached houses or in smaller enclaves. In the suburbs and near – suburbs, they rented substandard apartments in single story dwellings in deep and narrow courtyards that housed several kitchen-room type units.

Being a rentier was an occupation that was profitable and provided social status and power. Big rentiers were the owners of luxurious apartments available to a small circle of better off citizens, but they also owned dilapidated buildings and apartments that they leased to the poor citizens of Belgrade. Not so rich rentiers mostly had the latter tenants. There was also a number of “landladies” and “landlords” who were not rentiers by occupation, but who increased their modest profits by leasing a small apartment in the courtyard, basement or shed. One form of poor people's “rentier business” was subleasing a part of the apartment, most often a room.

The tenants of small and substandard, but expensive apartments and rooms, were poor families and singles, junior civil servants, pensioners, craftsmen, workers and many others. There were also pre-war citizens of Belgrade, those who were looking for employment in the capital city of the newly formed Kingdom, migrant workers, Russian refugees and foreigners, together with a large number of half - literate, unqualified and poor village population newly arrived to Belgrade.

The apartments were small in size and had insufficient cubic capacity of air per room. They were overcrowded, often consisting of a kitchen and a room, or one room. They were damp, badly lit and without sunlight, cold and with no fresh air, negatively affecting the tenants health. Even today, these courtyard buildings that housed the poorbetween the two world wars can be found in the streets of Dorćol, Savamala, Čubura, Voždovac, Zvezdara, Lekino Brdo or Bulbulder.

Alden B. Dow (1904-1983) was born in Midland, a small town in mid-Michigan, as the fifth of Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow's seven children. H.H. Dow founded the Dow Chemical Company in 1891, thus not only contributing to the industrial upsurge which advanced the US from a semi-peripheral to a core nation, but also saving Midland from its near ruin. Instead, the town became a destination for many professionals looking for rewarding employment and pleasant living conditions. The fact that H.H. Dow and his affluent coworkers constantly strived to develop a self-sufficient settlement with amenities that surpass the usual contents of a small town, worked to A. Dow's advantage. Midland, like very few other American towns, such as F. L. Wright's Oak Park, Illinois, or Brother Greene's Pasadena, California, can boast of being shaped by its own architect and city planner.

A. Dow studied architecture at Columbia University (1927- 1931), where the academic approach still dominated. He was, on the other hand, drawn towards styles that preferred placing function over form, such as the Arts and Crafts Movement (F. L. Wright in particular), Japanese and modern architecture. During his rich career, starting in late 1920s, Dow, as a part of Midwestern Modern, developed his own distinctive synthesis of styles believing that architecture had to be one with nature and a created environment that stimulated the advancement and the individuality of people who used it. He has designed hundreds of buildings ranging from residential to commercial, educational, religious and civic structures. Although most of them are located in Midland and in Michigan, his buildings are also found in many other parts of the US.

This article focuses on his residential buildings and is based on the research in the Alden B. Dow Archives, housed in A. B. Dow Home and Studio, a National Historic Landmark, and on the analyses of 16 Midland homes.

This paper explores comic book oeuvre of Aleksandar – Šaca Hecl (1926-1991), an illustrator, comic book artist and painter. Painting and visual arts have been Hecl's field of work for fifty years and he drew over three hundred illustrations for books, magazines, school text books, twenty comic books and hundreds of sketches and oil paintings. The emphasis is on comic books, which have been a starting point for discovering Hecl's oeuvre, due to their value and graphic uniqueness on national comic book scene.

Hecl's work that could have been accessed has been analyzed applying cultural and iconological method and has been divided into early period and later period. A specific drawing technique and gradual development of style towards more free drawing, stylized form and more free treatment of basic comic book elements are common characteristics of these two periods. Stylistically, Hecl's comic books follow the maintrends on the national comic book scene; in his later work he has been one of the heralds of a new comic book graphic style and his drawing technique has had a direct impact on younger artists.

Hecl's comic books, especially those from his later period, represent an important segment in the transition of domestic comic book from classical realism to new modern form. He was one of the most outstanding realists, but also one of the doyens of a new comic book technique of the 1970s and 1980s. His comic book oeuvre has yet to be analyzed thoroughly.

In a broader sense context, analyzing Hecl's work helps to develop understanding of comic book as an important art category and also of a need of its integration into and studying of in the framework of general historical and artistic tendencies.

Legacy in Heritage Museum Petrovac na Mlavi consists of illustrations by Božidar Boža Veselinović (1921 – 1999), done for the magazine the “Politikin Zabavnik” in the period from 1973 to 1979. Illustrations were done in ink drawing technique on illustration board applied to a mount board. According to their themes, Legacy illustrations are divided into two cycles: Battles and Military Conquests and National Costumes through Centuries.

Illustrations are examples of prolific work of Boža Veselinović, the “Politikin Zabavnik” illustrator and one of the most outstanding comic-book illustrators of the second half of the 20^th century. On one hand, the following is expressed through morphological analysis: plastic and iconographic layer of illustrations/drawings; artistic interpretation of themes and motifs of the content of illustrations and drawing characteristics of artist's authentic signature style; problem treatment of newspapers illustration as a drawing in original form and a reproduction in printed medium, with a reference to the relation of basic illustration elements – text and picture. On the other hand, a definition of illustration as potentially distinct category of applied art, emphasising common characteristics and differences of comic-book and illustration, two related, mutually complementing, verbal and visual mediums of popular culture, is explored.

Chossening the art creations for displaying in unconvetnional frames, outside the museums and galeries, in other words, in urban public places, require special criterias of evaluation, because beside critisizm of art compositions it is necessery to grade and select appropriarte location, in order to form compatible and unrepeatable ambient. Public art is specially dealing with different critiques connected with evaluation and choise, interpretation of the artistic value, symbolism, context and overall presentation, particurarly because it is ussually funded from public budget and contstantly availalble and subject to reactions of all urban space users, profesionales and citizens. No matter if their character is permanent or temporary, art subjects have a power to fundamentally change appearance and nature of space, give it new dimension, or design it in the different manner. The fact is that the public space is actually the politic realm, so all interventions require certain steps, from initiatives to decisions making and realization. As case study of procedures is stated example of work of Commission for sculptures of Belgrade's City Assemble, that started in 2008, with a task to elect 10 art compositions and to opt for becomingly exhibition locations, with verification of all urban or technical possibilities. In addition, the authors are giving the proposal and concept for forming the Base Register of artistic masterpieces and public art on territory of the City of Belgrade, like model that some cities already have, in layout of public digital information base. The Register should contain all relevant and up-to-date data with visualization and mapping, with the goal to bring and promote the culture of this ambience to all interested persons.