THB TEMPLB OP KOS^OVO. ■''" ■ ■■■■' '■' "' : ;P, '>,{ y" '■

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1623, 14 December 1912, Page 11

THB TEMPLB OP KOS^OVO. ■''" ■ ■■■■' '■' "' : ;P , '> ,{ y" '■

SERVIAN PROPHECY AET.

This week*e news that tho Servian army, after the battle'of Kumanovo,. have ridden into UsJcub, the ancient capital of their race, trom which they had been driven five hundred years ago, appeals as powerfully to the. historical imagination as any other event in the war, writes a' correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian" of October 30.. But there are tome who saw thevServian, pavilion' at the International Inhibition .last year, at Koine to whom the news came not only as,, a great event, _ but as the fulfilment of \a prophecy, made before, them. ; ..J. •'.'• The unforgettable thing in .that exhibi-, tion was the strange grey building'which, rose sheer as a-fortress or a desert tomb from the erass and flowers'and pleasurewalks of the exhibition. This was the Servian pavilion. Mounting its steep steps, you were in. a different air and time and aware of a different spirit. You entered a loggia formed of mourning caryar tides, down whiolf a sphinx, human save in the wings, stared watchfully and expectantly. Looking between, the . figures of the loggia, you saw groups of. widows, whose mourning and hopelessness were expressed in gestures with- a primitive directness and force that came as a shock to most visitors. .The loggia led to a small domed hall, in /which was a gigantic statue of the herd Marko Kraljevic, the Servian:. Siegfried, .on his snorting horsb. : Round the. walls in tall panels were torsos of Turks, and above was a rhythmic, frieze of mingled figures of Serbs and.Turks fighting. On either side of the rhall wore.-. arched gateways, and inside the arches, were, grotesque heads of Turks set in.panels,-two.deep all the way round. ; You-.descended steps supported by crouching figures.that seemed to symbolise the Serbs.in captivity—gaunt, worn men'with .beards, their hands, palm downward, extended flat, a sign of subjection and of insufferable strain. -~ . . 1 In the outer rooms were paintings illustrating the Saga of Marko, culminating in a cartoon,' with something of. the stark imagery of the sculptor, showing "Marko dividing; the Empire." There was ah extraordinary fury and. purpose in. every part of. this strange building that moved one like the sight of, blood.and the call of trumpets... The contents of the pavilion wer'o described as."fragments.of the Temple ; of Kossovo," the name of the fatal field where the Servian nation went down,-

poetry of the country, and something of the stoknesa; ana grandeur and terrible silhouettes of the wild hills 1 seems to remain in his work. His subject was the death and resurrection of the Servian race. One legend especially haunted him —the legend of the hero Marko Itralievic, who lies, like King Arthur, in the heart of the mountains, guarded by national spirits, with his sword planted in the rock beside him, waiting for the day of revenge. Tho Servian poets declared that they saw the sword in the hand .of the Karageorges snatched from the tomb of Marko. They were to avenge Kossovo. And now the triumphant army has ridden through old Servia into TJskub, where their great Emperor Dousclian was crowned. . It is a safe prophecy that in Mestrovic we see the. most organic force as well as one of tho most subtle craftsmen ascending in modern sculpture. In. Marko we find a painter with ■The Spirit Made Manifest, a power of design equal to this gigantic thing, and among the other sculptors and painters we find a glow of sincerity and passion that has wrung from their material more than their skill had perhaps the right to demand. But in their works the manner by which the effect is produced is what one last comes to think about. It is the burning spirit that lives within it, and seems to throb and gesture through these forms as a tempest speaks through the new and fantastic shapes of the trees that it shakes in its_ grasp, or the announcements of "the .leaping'flames in a forest fire. ... Here we find that rare thing in modern times, art at the service of a profound national' emotion forerunning . a mighty and terrille crusade. Reading the news of the bloody battle of Kumanovo and the terrible dagger fights in the woods, of the wild charges of the Servian cavalry, of the slaughter of the- flying Turks, we turn to the sculptures of Mestrovic and Rosandic and the frescoes of Marko,, and'behold the spirit of hate, and anger and sacrifice,that inspire these wild people rising in imperishable, form before us to tell the happier ages that are to inherit the Balkans tho spirit of the nation that avenged Kossovo and set Macedonia free.