La Grande Belezza: Journal from Italy of Uroš Predić

Italy, the cradle of art and civilization, has always attracted artists and world travellers. Especially after Winckelmann’s research and the rediscovery of antiquity at the end of the 18th century, an Italophilic atmosphere prevailed in the cultural and artistic circles of European countries, conditioned by the awareness of the importance of the classical heritage of Italy and the artistic tradition it inherited. Improving and learning from that tradition and traveling to Italy, understood as a kind of artistic pilgrimage, was considered an extremely important model for the education of young artists. A large number of Serbian artists educated during the 19th century at European art academies, primarily in Vienna and Munich, stayed in Italy as part of their study trips, which we know about based on preserved drawings and sketches created in front of the works of great masters, postcards and letters, and notes of the artists themselves.

The most detailed description of his Italian “pilgrimage” was left to us by Uroš Predić in the “Journal from Italy”, which he kept daily for 35 days, from April 8th to May 13th, 1909. “Journal” follows his stay in Rome, where, besides Florence, he stayed for the longest time, visiting Pisa, Padua, Orvieto, Siena, until due to a sudden illness he was forced to end it and end up in Venice. He set out on the trip as an already formed artist with developed aesthetic views and certain understandings, which conditioned his experience of Italy and what he saw.

What did Predić write about in his diary, what was his attitude towards European art, as well as his opinion on historical figures and people he met, what remarks did he have during his trip, the discovery lecture of art historian Snežana Mišić, PhD, museum advisor and deputy director of Gallery of Matica Srpska Gallery.