The Painted Program of the Mateič Monastery and the Ktetorship of Empress Jelena Nemanjić Asen as the Path to the Salvation of the Soul
The Painted Program of the Mateič Monastery and the Ktetorship of Empress Jelena Nemanjić Asen as the Path to the Salvation of the Soul

Summary/Abstract: Empress Jelena Nemanjić Asen, wife of the Serbian Emperor Stefan Dušan (1331–1355), mother of Emperor Stefan Uroš V (1355–1371), and sister of Bulgarian Emperor Ivan Alexander (1331–1371), is the first empress from the Nemanjić dynasty. Jelena‘s parents were the despot Stracimir and Keraca, the sister of Tsar Mihailo Šišman. Her marriage to king Stefan Dušan additionally strengthened the king’s ruling legitimacy, as through his marriage with Jelena, he intermarried with Roman ruling families. Her role in governing the empire during the reign of King Dušan and after his death, when she ruled independently in Serres, as well as her role in shaping the visual culture of medieval Serbia, is extremely important. Jelena was the only woman who sojourned on the Athos, which also testifies to her position and importance, but also to the respect that the monks of Mount Athos had for her. She sponsored the monks and monasteries on Mount Athos, and she also supported the Catholic monasteries in Dubrovnik. Tradition also attributes to the empress the erection of the Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God in Nerodimlje, near the village of Uroševac, where emperor Uroš was buried. However, her most important endowment is the Monastery of Mateič, probably built as her burial church. The monastery was an expression of her private piety and her personal connection with the Mother of God, who was her protector. Helena‘s endowment also had a political dimension, which, like her private piety, is reflected in the architecture of the katholikon and in the program of frescoes. The Monastery of Mateič, has its prototype in the architecture of Constantinople churches such as the Holy Apostles and the Monastery of Christ Pantokrator, but also in the Monastery of the Holy Archangels near Prizren, the endowment of Emperor Stefan Dušan. This connection between Constantinople and Serbia does not testify to a blind repetition of the ground plan of a church but to the cultural and ideological transfer of visual patterns from the Roman Empire to the countries of the Roman cultural circle through cross-cultural connections in which women played a key role. The painted program includes many cycles, such as the Great Feasts, the Passion of Christ, Christ’s Miracles, Christ’s post-resurrection appearances, the Life of the Virgin, the Akathistos of the Virgin, the cycle dedicated to the Ecumenical Councils, as well as the scenes from the lives of saints: Archangel Michael, John the Baptist, Demetrios, Anthony the Great, and Elijah. A vast number of saints in the form of busts and standing figures are painted in the naos and narthex. There are several scenes and cycles that rarely (or never) appear in churches from the time of the Nemanjić, such as the cycle of the Acts and the Martyrdom of the Apostles, the legend of King Abgar, as well as the Genealogical Tree of the Nemanjić, Komnenian, and Assen dynasties. Jelena‘s ktetorship and the painting of the Mateič Monastery testify to her ruling ideology, but above all to her private piety and personal relationship with the Mother of God, who is her intercessor and protector during the Last Judgment, as well as to Jelena‘s hope in salvation.

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