Уметничке миграције и визуелна култура Југоисточне Европе: мајстор Тома Исидоровић из Крушева
Art Migrations and Visual Culture of Southeast Europe: Artisan Toma Isidorović from Kruševo

Summary/Abstract: The visual culture of Southeast Europe was influenced by the migrations of individuals, as well as political events such as the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of nation-states during the 19th century. By changing their residence temporarily or permanently, artists transmitted ideas, iconographic patterns, and technological procedures according to the medium they used. The so-called pečalba or economic migration of artisans from the southern to the northwest regions should be also taken into consideration. One of the artists completely unknown to national historiography is Toma Isidorović, goldsmith and copper etcher, who worked in Greece and Bulgaria and moved to the Principality of Serbia at the beginning of the second half of the 19th century. He was an ethnic Aromanian born in Kruševo in North Macedonia. In the monasteries of Mount Athos, representative objects made of silver have been preserved along with various copper engravings. The graphic sheets of Toma Isidorović are also preserved in the Rila Monastery. His activity in Belgrade was primarily related to the practice of goldsmith’s art. The largest and so far unidentified group of goldsmith objects, Toma Isidorović created between 1853 and 1854 in the Principality of Serbia. Isidorović designed very sumptuous liturgical silver objects – the silver fittings for the Gospels, rapidions, the liturgical cross, censers, chalices, patens, and communion spoons. The quality of these items, made using the demanding Niello technique, as well as the precise Orthodox iconography and, above all, the skill of making drawings distinguish the personality of Toma Isidorović from Kruševo from all other goldsmiths and their works created in Serbia during the second half of the 19th century.

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