The most famous sculpture of the Renaissance artist, the most famous in the entire world history, Michelangelo, “Moses”, as well as his other works – “Day”, “Night”, “Dying Slave” and “Rebellious Slave” – together with 13 other casts, the ultimate masterpieces of not world art, but culture, civilization, can be freely touched – in Belgrade!
This truly incredible precedent is possible thanks to the unique casts of Michelangelo’s originals, made using a special technique, with unique and special permits from the Vatican, and at a hefty price, which were made and brought to Belgrade between the two world wars.
And we have to thank someone for that…
Dr. Vojislav Veljković, a famous Serbian lawyer who lived at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, a man with a gentle, calm gaze and obviously broad views, decided to feed his soul with a collection of works of art, which would then remain in a private museum as a legacy to future generations.
What does a lawyer have to do with the world of art?
In the time he lived, culture was seen as a mandatory companion of material wealth.
An excellent professor, and even secretary to King Alexander Obrenović, and a respected minister in several terms, from an extremely wealthy and distinguished family, Veljković had the opportunity to rise above the ordinary world, travel around Europe, earn his doctorate at the Sorbonne, and there come into contact with artists and collectors.
His love for art won his heart, but his desire to gather hundreds of paintings in Belgrade and, in the end, to bring casts of the greatest masterpieces of the Renaissance sculptor, represents a real feat and endowment. The magnitude of this undertaking is evidenced by the fact that today (in normal times, before the Covid virus pandemic) there are huge queues to see these sculptures, with hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the globe.
And the possibility of directly feeling the nobility and supreme skill of Michelangelo under your fingers is absurd to even think about. Any such attempt would end in arrest and imprisonment. However, in Belgrade this is not the case: Michelangelo’s beauty stands freely and it is possible not only to touch it but also to run your hands over it for hours, until the sublimity of the artistic endeavor has absolutely permeated you…
In order for Michelangelo’s sculptures to be in his private possession, Veljković had to pay a lot for it.
But all that money would not have helped if the then Pope Pius XI had not personally approved that Michelangelo’s sculptures be copied using the “lost wax” technique, so that it was possible to make only one single cast. There were no molds, Veljković was allowed to make an absolute replica, without any chance of it ever being repeated.
Why and how Pope Pius XI agreed to this, and how he gave such an exclusive privilege to a Serb – remains unknown to this day.
What Veljković did goes beyond the reach of the connections he made and the money he could pay for it all – it is an immeasurable desire, dedication and life’s endeavor to create something so great – for himself, his family, for artists, for the people.
This is the kind of energy that was rarely encountered later in the 20th century and there are indeed few individuals who have done similar feats for their people, not regretting their own wealth and position, in order to bring extremely valuable things to the country, and ennoble it.
Unfortunately, not only did this lawyer not live to see his “Museo”, the studio he started to build as his private museum (he died before its construction), but the change of system in 1945 swept away everything he had created like a storm. It was a communist nationalization.
Valuable works of art, carefully collected for the “Museo”, were then scattered around the world, by the brutality and reckless revenge of the victors with weapons.
Like the sculptures. However, out of the 21 precious replicas brought from the French foundry, 18 remained in our city due to their weight. They are now located at three addresses, all belonging to the Faculty of Fine Arts. Among them are five of Michelangelo’s works.
Thanks to one, today, unfortunately, unknown man to the wider public, at least our students have the opportunity to look directly at the works sculpted by the hands of the greatest artist who amazed the world, and amazes it, even more, today.
Some of the sculptures are located in the courtyard of the sculpture department of the faculty on Topčider Hill, so interested passers-by can ask to enter and feel the absolute sublimity under their hands. Such a privilege is possible today on the entire planet only in that courtyard, in a Belgrade neighborhood.
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In some other city, in some other country, these works would be in a central place in the National Museum of that country, as an exclusive rarity, available to locals and guests who would be attracted to them.
Unfortunately, in Belgrade they were even exposed to various “interventions” by certain students who took it upon themselves to coat, paint and desecrate the general civilizational good, in ignorance and some youthful arrogance.
It remains to be hoped that the City of Belgrade or the Republic of Serbia will nevertheless recognize the value of what exists and do everything to preserve and worthily exhibit the extremely valuable gift of Vojislav Veljković to his people for future generations.
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Izvor: Kaldrma, Foto: Printscreen Facebook / Био једном један Београд