Monument of thanks to France

General appearance of the monument

Reliefs "Sorbonne" and "Warriors"

Reliefs "Sorbonne" and "Warriors"

Veliki Kalemegdan Park

The Monument of Thanks to France is a work of art created by Ivan Meštrović on Kalemegdan in Belgrade , which was planned by an initiative in Belgrade as thanks for the support of Serbia by the French government in World War I and unveiled on November 11, 1930.

history

After the end of the First World War, Serbian intellectuals started an initiative with the Association of Former Students of French Schools and the Association of Friends of France to erect a monument to the Serbian-French friendship in Paris or Belgrade, as a token of gratitude for the military and training aid during and after the war. So in 1924 a committee was formed to erect the monument with Niko Miljanić (1892–1957), one of the founders of the Medical Faculty in Belgrade, at its head. A collection of donations ensured the provision of financial resources.

In 1921, the Belgrade Municipality Committee decided to erect a tomb as a token of gratitude to the French soldiers who perished while defending Belgrade in 1915.

In 1928 the Belgrade municipality ceded a parcel of military land on Kalemegdan for the monument “in the most beautiful place in the center of Kalemegdan Park, which stands out with one of the most beautiful European landscapes, and near which the House of France will soon rise” ( French Embassy building), which was built between 1928 and 1932. In return, France erected the monument to King Petar I the Liberator and Aleksandar I the Unifier in Paris, monuments in Orléans and Marseilles and named an avenue in Paris after King Petar I.

description

The Yugoslav sculptor Ivan Meštrović (1883–1962) made the monument in his studio - gallery “Meštrović” in Zagreb, where it was cast in bronze from 14 parts in 1930 in the foundry for works of art ALU using the “lost wax” technique and on site and place was put together. The monumental figure, over four meters high, represents France, which comes to the aid of Serbia in a belligerent panache. The gesture of allegorizing the national spirit of France and thus the attributes of dynamism, leadership, courage and faith. The monumentality, which is the focus of the sculptural expression of Meštrović, is additionally emphasized by the exhibition of large, restrained forms of the central female figure on a seven-meter-high plinth made of full blocks, the so-called "marble" from Brač (gray limestone Adriatic type, the a white patina developed on the surface). The pyramid-shaped arrangement of the segments in the frame of the geometrically designed base emphasizes the stylistic unity of the monument with the parterre garden, which is geometrically designed according to the principles of a French garden. Access to the monument, which is placed at the end of the main avenue of the park, continues beyond the boundaries of the park, along the city's main street (Knez Mihailova) and further, emphasizing it as a visual factor. The year of installation and the dedication “A la France ” are carved on the front and the inscription “We love France as it loved us 1914-1918 ” on the back . The structure of the lower plinth area was enriched on the sides at the level of the viewer with sculpted relief compositions with narrative content. These were created according to his designs by Meštrović's pupils, the sculptors Frano Kršinić , who directed the work, and Antun Аugustinčić , as well as Grga Antunac, Šime Dujmić and Orlandini in Split. The reliefs do not intervene in the space outside the level of the plinth and consistently implement the concept of the building, with precise fitting of the chiseled parts with visible connecting points in the spirit of Egyptian monumental reliefs, without applications on the plinth, but rather its organic part to represent what is in line with the concept of the sculpture by Meštrović.

The images of the relief describe the main merits: the strict, repetitive series of figures of the relief "Warriors" on the left lead into the compositional principle of iscephaly with models in the flat Assyrian relief of the archers - a motif that Meštrović in relief and in the Lithograph processed - a, and tells of the military alliance of the Serbian and French troops on the Saloniki front. On the other hand, the more finely modeled “Sorbonne” suggests educational aid for Serbian youth during and after the war. The original sketch for this relief, which is in the “Meštrović” gallery and depicts France as a woman suckling Serbian children, was modified at the suggestion of the director of the French Institute in Zagreb and personal friend of the creator (Rаymond Warnier).

The national symbol of the triumph of the French Republic in the form of the female figure Marianne after the revolution and the fall of the monarchy in France is expressed in numerous works: With the “Marseillaise” on her lips, she is the leader of the battle on the relief “Exodus der Freiwilligen ”designed by François Rude at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris; in the famous painting by Eugène Delacroix, dedicated to the revolution, it is depicted as “Freedom leads the people”; in Daumier's painting “The Republic”, on the other hand, in the Musée d'Orsay, she is portrayed as a great mother suckling her children. These and similar allegorical depictions of France in the form of a determined female figure, with a characteristic Phrygian cap as a distinguishing mark, represent clear, significant references for the design of the monument of Meštrović on Kalemegdan.

The stylization of the figure and the drama of the sudden movement of the figure in the sculptural expression bring the work closer to secession. The logic of the movements, the great lunge of which comes from the late Hellenistic sculpture, is based on shifting the total weight to the foot of the left leg and creating a static balance between the dominant surfaces: the twisted masses of the upper body with protruding, right shoulder and the spread the long, tense arch of the right leg with the total volume of the drapery and the left hand. The arrangement of the main surfaces and the lateral placement of the relief shift the main aspect of viewing the monument to the sides. Despite the fact that the side aspect is more pictorially rich in content, Meštrović creates the frontal orientation of the figure towards the viewer in order to additionally emphasize the dignity and importance of the designed figure with such an (ideal) frontal position. The deviation from the naturalistic approach and the modern influences are best recognizable by the treatment of the drapes, the fantasy shapes of which on the front lead to the figure becoming almost unrecognizable.

The merging of the volume of the left hand with the side surfaces of the drapery aims to create an almost aerodynamic shape in which the horizontal spreading of the folds of the fabric suggests the power of movement and flight. In this spread of swirling folds of the drapery, the efforts of the creator with their volume to bring the side surfaces of the wings and the work closer to the ideal of the sculptural idea of ​​victory can be recognized: the famous late Hellenistic sculpture “ Nike of Samothrace ”.

Location and importance

The monument was erected near the Karađorđe Gate of the Belgrade Fortress on the site of the former Karađorđe monument. This was set up by the military ministry after the triumphant return from victory in the Balkan wars in 1913 with the aim of marking the centenary of the formation of a regular army introduced by vožd Karađorđević . The Karađorđe monument was blown up with dynamite by the Austro-Hungarian occupation forces in 1916, with the intention of replacing it with a colossal bronze figure of Franz Josef. This was found after the war in a barge on the Save and melted it into bells for Orthodox churches. The largest of them was given to the Rose Church on Kalemegdan. The planning for the construction of the Karađorđe monument, beginning in 1857, is one of the earliest activities for the construction of public monuments in Serbia. The monument of Meštrović, which was erected at this point, uses the strong symbolism of the fortress as a battleground and the special location above the rivers, recognizing the folk-historical importance of this location, which was originally intended for the erection of a monument to Karađorđe.

The Monument of Thanks to France is one of the works by Meštrović that were created after the First World War. During this time, most of his monuments were created with a monumental conception, reduced details and an emphasized basic idea. This monument introduces a new expressive concept, instead of the realistic and narrative concepts that were common up until then, and thus contributes to the development of public monuments in Belgrade. Due to its cultural and historical importance, it was declared a cultural monument in 1965 and a cultural asset of great importance for the Republic of Serbia in 1983 (Official Gazette “Službeni Glasnik RS” No. 28/83).

literature

• Documentation Zavoda za zaštitu spomenika kulture grada Beograda - Dosije spomenika kulture Spomenik zahvalnosti Francuskoj
• Svetislav Marodić, Spomenik zahvalnosti Francuskoj, Beogradske opštinske novine No. 21-22. November 1930.
• Pred svečanost otkrivanja spomenika zahvalnosti Francuskoj, Politika November 9, 1930. Accessed October 14, 2013. Available at: [8]
• Мila Jeftović, Spomenik Karađorđu Paška Vučetića, Nasleđe No. 3, 2001. Available at: [9]
• Оsvećenje crkve Ružice, Politika October 12, 1925. Available at: [10]
• Мiodrag B. Protić, Umetnost na tlu Jugoslavije, skulptura XX veka, Belgrade, Zagreb, Мostar 1982.
• Enciklopedija likovnih umetnosti, Јugoslovenski leksikografski zavod, 1959–1966.
• Slobodan-Giša Bogunović, Аrhitektonska enciklopedija Beograda XIX i XX veka, Beogradska knjiga, Belgrade 2005.
• М. Vulović, Kapije Beogradske tvrđave, Godišnjak grada Beograda, Book XIX - 1972. Available on: [11]
• Catalog nepokretnih kulturnih dobara na području grada Beograda, ZZSKGB, Belgrade 2010.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Defense of Belgrade 1915 Pomen braniocima Beograda 1915, Politika, accessed on October 14, 2013, available at [1]
2. ^ Building of the French Embassy, ​​accessed October 14, 2013, available at [2]
3. ↑ Gallery “Меštrović” in Zagreb, accessed on October 14, 2013, available on archive link ( memento of the original from December 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ^ The extract of the volunteers, François Rude, accessed October 14, 2013. Available at [3]
5. ↑ Freedom leads the people, Еugène Delacroix, accessed October 14, 2013. Available at [4]
6. ↑ Die Republik, Honoré Daumier, Мusée d'Orsay, accessed on October 14, 2013. Available at [5]
7. ↑ Gates of the Belgrade Fortress Archive link ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
8. ↑ Karađorđe monument [6]
9. ↑ Rosenkirche [7]  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

Coordinates: 44 ° 49 ′ 16.4 "  N , 20 ° 27 ′ 4.5"  E