Dejan Medaković

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Dejan Medaković

Dejan Medaković (Serbian Cyrillic: Дејан Медаковић) (July 7, 1922 – July 1, 2008) was a Serbian writer, historian, professor and significant contributor to Serbian culture. Medaković had served as the President of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the dean of the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy, and was a notable member of Matica srpska and a number of other scholarly institutions.

Life

Dejan Medaković was born on 7 July 1922 in Zagreb (then the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (now Croatia) in an old and distinguished Serbian family. His father, Đorđe, was an economist; his mother, Anastazija, a housewife. His paternal grandfather, Dr. Bogdan Medaković, was a political leader of Serbs in Croatia during the Austro-Hungarian reign, chief of the Serb People's Independent Party and president of the Croat-Serb coalition, as well as the president of the Croatian Sabor during the years 1908-1918. His great-grandfather Danilo lived in Serbia and held various positions in administrations of princes Miloš and Mihailo Obrenović. On his mother's side he was a descendant of the Austrian military nobility.

He finished lower gymnasium in Badija near Korčula and higher gymnasium in Sremski Karlovci. During the Second World War he lived in Belgrade as a refugee. From 1942 to 1946 he worked as a volunteer-assistant in the Prince Pavle's Museum in Belgrade (today the National Museum). He graduated (1949) and later got his PhD (1954) at the Philosophical Faculty in Belgrade (Department of the History of Art).

He became a member of the staff of the University of Belgrade in 1954, where he would remain until 1982 when he retired. Between 1971 and 1973 he was also the dean of the Philosophical Faculty.

He was elected as a corresponding member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU) in 1972 and as a regular member in 1981. He was also a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in Salzburg, the Austrian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ÖGE 18), the Leibniz Society in Berlin, member of the Counsel of Matica srpska in Novi Sad as well as the president of the Assembly of the Vuk Karadžić Foundation.

He held various distinguished positions in the Serbian Academy: he was a Secretary of the Department of Historical Sciences (1981-85), Secretary General of the Academy (1985-94), and in 1999 he was elected as the President of SANU, a post which he held until 2003.

In Matica srpska he was in charge of the Department of the History of Art. He edited the magazine "Fine Arts Digest of Matica srpska." In his research he was interested in wide span of subjects, from Serbian medieval art to modern painting, but his main fields of interest were Serbian Baroque painting and general cultural circumstances in the 18th century (as well as Serbian art of the 19th century).

He was also a poet and a prose writer. He published many studies, essays, monographs, recensions and articles on various topics ranging from new developments on the art scene, to current social and political issues. His studies have been collected and published in several books-"Serbian Painters of the 18th Century," "The Paths of Serbian Baroque," "Testimonials," "The Researchers of the Serbian Antiquity" and "The Serbian Baroque." He was also a major contributor to the "History of the Serbian People," as well as in the important publications "Serbian Art of the 18th Century" and "Serbian Art of the 19th Century". In addition to that, he published several important monographs and studies on the subject of art in the service of the Serbian Orthodox Church: "Hilandar," "Savine," "St. Andreja," "St. Mountain Fruška Gora." Other important works are: "The Chronicles of Serbs in Trieste," "Serbs in Vienna," "Serbs in Zagreb," "Images of Belgrade represented in old etchings," "Selected Serbian themes" and "Letters". He was also an author of five books of poetry, as well as of the famous autobiographical prose cycle "Ephemeris."

Dejan Medaković was the recipient of many distinguished awards and honours - Herder's Prize; The Anton Gindely Award; The October Award of the City of Belgrade; The Annual Award of Prosveta; The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesverdienstkreuz); The Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Arts; Gold Medal of Merit of the Republic of Hungary, Medal of Vuk Karadžić of the First Order, as well as many others.

He died on July 1, 2008, in the Oncological Institute of Belgrade Hospital.

Honors and awards

  • Prosveta Reward for literature, philosophy and history
  • 7 July Reward of Serbia
  • 1990 - Herder Prize, Republic of Austria
  • Gindeli Rewards, Republic of Austria
  • The Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Arts
  • October Reward of Belgrade
  • Gold Medal of Merit of the Republic of Hungary
  • Order of bischop of Zagreb Ist degree, Republic of Croatia
  • Special Vuk's Rewards
  • Annual Reward of Prosveta
  • Medal of the Order of Saint Sava, Ist degree
  • Great Cross for Services to the Federal Republic of Germany
  • Medal of Vuk Karadžić, Ist degree
  • Crown of Despot Stefan Lazarević
  • Golden ring of Despot Stefan Lazarević
  • Bestseller reward, National library of Serbia

Works

Scientific works

  • Beograd u starim gravirama (in Serbian). 1950. 
  • Grafika srpskih štampanih knjiga XV—XVII veka (in Serbian). 1958. 
  • Stari srpski drvorez (in Serbian). 1964. 
  • Srpski slikari XVIII—XX veka (in Serbian). 1968. 
  • Putevi srpskog baroka (in Serbian). 1971. 
  • Tragom srpskog baroka (in Serbian). 1976. 
  • Oči u oči (in Serbian). 1978. 
  • Manastir Savina (in Serbian). 1998. 
  • Hilandar (in Serbian). 1978. 
  • Srpska umetnost u XVIII veku (in Serbian). 1980. 
  • Srpska umetnost u XIX veku (in Serbian). 1998. 
  • Sentandreja (in Serbian). 1982. 
  • Istraživaci srpskih starina (in Serbian). 1984. 
  • Letopis Srba u Trstu (in Serbian). 1987. 
  • Barok kod Srba (in Serbian). 1988. 
  • Sumrak Lovčena (in Serbian). 1989. 
  • Zapadnoevropski barok i vizantijski svet (in Serbian). 1989. 
  • Kosovski boj u likovnim umetnostima (in Serbian). 1989. 
  • Serbischer Barock: Sakrale Kunst im Donauraum (Serbian Baroque) (in German). Vienna: Bohlau. 1991. ISBN 978-3-205-05401-6. 
  • Pavle Ivić, ed. (1995) [1981]. "Serbian Art in the Eighteenth Century". The History of Serbian Culture. translated by Randall A. Major (English translation ed.). Edgware, Middlesex: Porthill Publishers. ISBN 1-870732-31-6. 
  • Pavle Ivić, ed. (1995) [1981]. "Serbian Art in the Nineteenth Century". The History of Serbian Culture. translated by Randall A. Major (English translation ed.). Edgware, Middlesex: Porthill Publishers. ISBN 1-870732-31-6. 
  • Serbs in Vienna (in Serbian). 1998. 
  • Dunav, reka jedinstva Evrope (in Serbian). Prometej. 1998. 
  • Izabrane srpske teme I-V (in Serbian). 1998. 
  • Sveta gora fruškogorska (in Serbian). 1998. 
  • Otkrivanje Hilandara (in Serbian). 2001. 
  • Joseph II und die Serben (in Serbian (Josif II i Srbi)) (German translation ed.). Prometej. 2001. 
  • Serben in Wien (Serbs in Vienna) (German translation ed.). Prometej. 2001. ISBN 86-7639-546-2. 
  • Die Donau (in Serbian (Dunav)) (German translation ed.). Prometej. 2001. 
  • Serbs in Zagreb (in Serbian). Prometej. 2004. 

Books of poetry

  • Motivi (in Serbian). 1946. 
  • Kamenovi (in Serbian). 1966. 
  • Umir (in Serbian). 1987. 
  • Niska (in Serbian). 1989. 
  • Znak na kamenu (in Serbian). 1994. 
  • Zaveštanje (in Serbian). 1995. 
  • Sve čudnije je čudno (in Serbian). Prometej. 2000. 

Books of short stories

  • Povratak u Rakitije (in Serbian). 
  • Ptice (in Serbian). 
  • Orlov let (in Serbian). 
  • Parastost u Sremskim Karlovcima (in Serbian). 
  • Lumen Karlovačke gimnazije (in Serbian). 

Other works

Memoirs, autobiographical prose, letters, speeches:

  • Svedočenja (in Serbian). 1984. 
  • Ephemeris: chronique d'une famille (Ephemeris I) (in French). Lausanne: Age d'homme. 1995. 
  • Traženje dobra (in Serbian). 1995. 
  • Pisma (in Serbian). 1996. 
  • Ephemeris I-V (in Serbian). Belgrade: Beogradski izdavacko-graficki zavod. 1998. 
  • Suočavanje sa ljudima i vremenom (in Serbian). 2000. 
  • Pisma i govori (in Serbian). Prometej. 2004. 
  • Dani, sećanja I-VIII (in Serbian). 1996-2006. 


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