Publication details
Kiril Kutlik i František Nekvasil - zaboravljena imena iz kulturne istorije Smedereva
| Title in English | Cyril Kutlík and František Nekvasil - the Forgotten Names in the Cultural History of Smederevo |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2009 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Smederevski zbornik |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Art, architecture, cultural heritage |
| Description | Resumé Rather unexpectedly the activity of two foreigners - Slovakian painter Cyril Kutlík (1869-1900) and Czech architect and engineer František Nekvasil 1843-1913) has been related with Smederevo and its surroundings. In the archives in Slovakia and in Serbian academic literature we discovered interesting details concerning the activities of two daring men who did not hesitate to settle permanently in Serbia. At the beginning of this work is presented not so much known picture postcard of Smederevo from the Archives of Visual Arts of the Slovakian National Gallery in Bratislava (AVU SNG) that Cyril Kutlík, founder of Serbian Drawing and Painting School in Belgrade (1895), sent to his wife. This picture postcard is important, first of all, because of its documentary value as it is the evidence for the Kutlík's stay in Smederevo because of professional reasons. The series of paintings The Grapes from Smederevo had after that also been mentioned by the monk Rafailo Momčilović (1875-1941), who was Kutlík's student, and by the art historian Nenad Simić (1920-1994) on the basis of the text in the Serbian press. We called the attention to the fact that undocumented paintings of grapes of three Serbian sorts had been prepared for the World Exhibition. There is also a quotation from the French press that confirms Kutlík's participation at the mentioned exhibition in Paris (1900). Still another work, which Kutlík planned to make, is related to the surroundings of Smederevo. In his personal fund, in AVU SNG, is preserved the commission for the paintings for the iconostasis in the church in Golobok near Smederevska Palanka. The icons from the church of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ really date from the period of the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The final opinion about possible Kutlík's participation in their creation will be possible only after the comparison with his other works and sources of inspiration of this artist and after taking into consideration the opinions of the Serbian art historians. František Nekvasil, Kutlík's father-in-law, directed in the period between 1911 and 1913 the construction works on - nowadays unknown - bridge and probably also on the railroad tracks and buildings for the railway company in Smederevo and in his work he was assisted by his son Otokar Nekvasil and his-son-in law Antonín Brázdil. On the basis of the correspondence from the Archive for Literature and Art of the Slovakian National Library in Martin the author provides details concerning also Nekvasil's participation in construction of railroad tracks in Ovčar Banja (around 1906) and the railroad between Šabac and Banja Koviljača where he directed the complete construction (1908-1910). The author quoting Divna Djurić-Zamolo (1922-1995) describes Nekvasil as entrepreneur, owner of agricultural estate and prominent member of the Czech colony in Belgrade. The reproduced photograph of his family house and reproduction of the picture postcard of the Nekvasil's best known project, Hotel Slavija (between 1882 and 1888), as the examples of the bourgeois architecture come from the archive of the City Museum of Belgrade. In the conclusion are skillfully mapped also the architectural projects of the company of V. Nekvasil with head office in Czech Republic although these are only the namesakes of the family Nekvasil that was active in Serbia. Cyril Kutlík and František Nekvasil took the opportunity to apply their potentials and professional knowledge in the country of the friendly Slavic people in the end of the 19th century. The activities of these, nowadays forgotten, person in the cultural history of Smederevo left larger or smaller traces in Serbia in general and this study offers more comprehensive information about that. |