Description:
Kalenić Monastery is situated on the slopes of the Gledićke Mountains, westwards from the village of Oparić in Levač. Out of the original monastery compound, only the Church of the Presentation of the Most Holy Mother of God has been preserved. It was erected and decorated with frescoes in the early 15th century, as the legacy of the nobleman Bogdan, who did duty as a high-ranking official at Despot Stefan Lazarević’s court. It is classified into the group of the most beautiful monuments of Moravian architecture and Byzantine construction art. It was constructed on the model of Lazarica, with the basis in the shape of a compact trikonhos; its sanctuary apse and the lateral semi-domes (konhas) are externally five-sided and internally semi-circular. Above the space between the konhas, the central dome rises, consisting of the eight-sided tambour with the windows cut in in a cascading manner, the collonnettes and the decorations of chessboard squares. On the outside, the church is very picturesque because of the white blocks of stone and red bricks nicely arranged in layers. Above the windows and the portal, there is shallow cut plastic decoration with the presentations of birds, griffons and lions. The main motif of the relief decoration is the two-member intertwining bays, the stylized lily and palmette, the anthropomorphic and zoomorphic presentation. The exquisite painting characterized by sophisticated coloration and the wistful images of the saints is classified into the highest-quality achievements in the art of painting throughout the Byzantine world of the first quarter of the 15th century. The compositions of The Wedding Ceremony in Cana, the presentations of holy warriors and saints in medallions particularly attract our attention. The authors are the two poetically inspired and quite talented painters, one of whom is Radoslav, the author of the miniatures in the famous Serbian “Petrograd Gospel” of 1429.