ENCOUNTER OF CULTURES IN ARTISTIC SHAPING OF STEĆAKS AND NIŠANS

The most representative monuments of artistic production in medieval Bosnia are stećaks - tombstones which testify of a unique cultural and artistic phenomenon within sepulchral practices at the European and global level. The complex issue of studying stećaks implies the following: historical framework, chronology of development, classification, typology, categorization of motifs, analysis of their style and iconography, as well as interpretation. Besides, a separate issue pertains to the existence of a complex medieval religious discourse in the form of three church organizations: autocephalous Bosnian Church, Catholic and Orthodox church; nevertheless, the art of stećaks and its existence exceeds this confessional discourse. In other words, we can speak of a kind of iconographic and visual “unification” of tombstones of different religions, which singles out this group of monuments compared to contemporary medieval tombstones of a broader area. Indeed, there are only few stećaks for which we can determine which confessional context they were raised in, but it is quite certain that this kind of artistic production originated in the medieval Bosnian state which nourished courtly-chivalric culture and the Christian idea of eternal life.

Such late medieval platform was gradually transformed in the 15th century, when we also encounter the first nišans – Islamic tombstones. As early as in the 16th century we can observe a clear differentiation of tombstones of different confessions in Bosnia and Herzegovina: nišans, different forms of crosses and other tombstones of Catholic and Orthodox Christians, as well as tombstones of Sephardi Jews. All overviews of the history of art in BiH from the 16th to the 19th century have been conceived exactly in this way: they present four courses in art in line with the religious context.  

A problem which arises in the research of the youngest vertical stećaks, and the first nišans built in this “transition stage” affected the Ottoman art, which lasted for about a century and a half, is a lack of appropriate data and systematic academic and professional studies in the field of the history of art. Despite first-class contribution of some authors of older generation (e.g. A. Bejtić, M. Mujezinović and Š. Bešlagić) and several authors of younger generation (V. Alađuz, N. Klinčević, M. Hasanspahić and others), it should be noted that there is no comprehensive overview of the art of nišans with referential comparative examples of a broader area of the Ottoman Empire, Besides, they partially presented other tombstones as well (a recently published study by I. Lovrenović on a kind of anthropomorphic crosses stands out in this respect). With respect to the art of vertical stećaks, a review of the abundant references leads to the conclusion that there have been dilemmas about this issue as well: when exactly can the youngest vertical stećaks be dated, and which form is the closest to the oldest nišans? In this context, the primary tasks pertain to more accurate dating of vertical stećaks in the form of a column, a stela or a cross, as well as to more accurate systematization and classification of the oldest nišans, which generally have a vertical form of tombstone of the stela, column/obelisk style and nišans with turbans.

What is fairly fascinating in the entire process of the transformation of tombstones in the 15th and the 16th century is the obvious and clear synthesis of two artistic traditions: Christian, in a broader sense of the word, and Islamic/Ottoman. It is interesting to see how tombstones of the same formational values, i.e. in the form of column/obelisk (four-sided prism with a ball) are simultaneously built for individuals of different confessions. Examples include the well-known nišans for Makmut Branković and Radivoje Oprašić: the former obviously adopted Islam, while the latter remained in the old religion. Preserved epitaphs on these examples testify of historical data about the deceased, fairly accurate dating, while the shape clearly points to the influence of Ottoman sepulchral art and relief content to older practices of the art of stećaks. Without the existence of epitaphs written in the Bosnian variety of Cyrillic alphabet we would not be able to assess and distinguish whether the deceased was a Muslim or a Christian. It is likely that we would first conclude that they are the oldest shahids' (martyrs') nišans; however, the epitaphs clearly prove that things are not so simple. Neither is religious identification possible by detailed analysis of the engraved motifs, since they are actually almost the same and indicate combining of heraldic, secular and sacral elements, devoted to outstanding individuals of the society of the time. Guided by these issues, Š. Bešlagić singled out one group of tombstones and named them “Christian nišans”. Thus, we encounter nišans built on Muslim cemeteries or in the form of cenotaph and the so-called “Christian nišans” at the same time. It is very difficult to make any definite conclusions about religious identity of the deceased for whom such tombstones were raised, both due to their forms and due to relief motifs. Still, for another tombstone of the first-class artistic value, perhaps even more representative than the listed ones, a conclusion is more certain although it has no epitaph. It is an obelisk/nišan in Gornji Bakići near Olovo (Figure 1). The three-dimensional form of this isolated monolithic cenotaph, over four meter high, clearly indicates the art of Islam and the shape of a kind of the oldest nišans while on the other hand, the relief motifs and their iconography are directly related to Christian context, i.e. to equally shaped motifs primarily found on stećaks in Olovo surroundings, very close to our tombstone. Besides Christian motifs of grapes, tree of life, spirals and solar-lunar motifs, we can also observe the emblem of an unidentified family, who obviously lived in this area in the second half of the 15th century. Therefore, this obelisk/nišan can be included in the group of “Christian nišans”. If we compare the youngest stećaks and the oldest nišans, we can clearly observe the continuity of local carvers' workshops in the interpretation of relief, though, at the same time, also the recognizable form of Ottoman tombstone. Having in mind dating of the representative forms of the oldest nišans, it can be concluded that carvers slowly began to use it as early as since the early 15th century, i.e. even before the formal fall of the medieval Bosnian state under Turkish rule. Processes of synthesizing, i.e. of crossing of different artistic traditions proceeded two-way and gradually, and it is in this stage that we encounter unique examples of tombstones. This phenomenon proves that artistic production was “ahead of its time” and without reserve in terms of the “religious context”: on the one hand, sepulchral art of the Ottoman Empire was in this field enriched with non-standard motifs taken from the art of stećaks, while on the other, stećaks were slowly transformed and assumed the appearance of nišans or tombstones of other confessions.

References:

• Alađuz, Vahid (2019), Stari bosanski nišani općine Hadžići, Hadžići: Municipality of Hadžići.

• Bejtić, Alija, “Spomenici osmanlijske arhitekture u Bosni i Hercegoviniˮ, Prilozi za orijentalnu filologiju i istoriju jugoslovenskih naroda pod turskom vladavinom, 3-4, Orijentalni institut, Sarajevo, 1952.

• Bešlagić, Šefik (1982), Stećci, kultura i umjetnost, Sarajevo: Veselin Masleša.

• Bešlagić, Šefik (1978), Nišani XV i XVI vijeka, Sarajevo: ANUBiH.

• Bešlagić, Šefik (2004), Leksikon stećaka, Sarajevo: Svjetlost.

• Hasanspahić, Mirnes, “Mramorovi olovskog krajaˮ, in: Zbornik radova Rijeka Krivaja kroz prošlost, Sarajevo: Institut za istoriju – Udruženje za modernu istoriju, Special editions 14, 2016, 49-79.

• Klinčević, Nihad (2021), Nišani u Bosni i Hercegovini, Istanbul: TDBB.

• Mujezinović, Mehmed (1998), Islamska epigrafika Bosne i Hercegovine, volumes I, II and III, ed.. Salko Zahiragić, Sarajevo: Sarajevo Publishing.

• Wenzel, Marian (1999), Bosanski stil na stećcima i metalu. Bosnian style on tombstones and metal, Sarajevo: Sarajevo Publishing.