Monument of Gratitude to France

Monument of Gratitude to France in Kalemegdan Park, Belgrade.

On 11 November 1930, the 12th anniversary day of the end of the First World War, a Memorial of gratitude to France in Belgrade’s Veliki Kalemegdan Park was formally unveiled in the presence of King Alexander and Queen Maria, the royal government, the delegation of the French government, Serbian war veterans, distinguished citizens, associations, schools, and a large crowd of people.

History

In the decisive days of the war after the epic battles of the Serbian Army, its perilous withdrawal across Albania and the almost inconceivable feat of breaching the enemy lines on the Salonika (Macedonian) Front, a military alliance and friendship between two countries had been forged. After the war, Serbian intellectuals gathered around the Association of French Schools Alumni and the Society of Friends of France initiated erection, in Belgrade or Paris, of a monument to France, as a token of gratitude for her military and educational aid during and after the war, and of the friendship built in the days of greatest trials. In 1924 the Committee for Erecting a Monument chaired by Niko Miljanić (1892–1957), a physician, one of the founders of the Belgrade University School of Medicine, was set up. The Committee succeeded in raising considerable funds within a short span of time. Of relevance to the history of the monument is also the year 1921, when Belgrade City Council made the decision to erect a gratitude and honour memorial to the French soldiers who had lost their lives defending Belgrade in 1915.

After the war, the Kingdom of Serbia ceased existing as such, becoming part of a newly created complex state, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, subsequently Yugoslavia, and Belgrade, as its capital, saw a period of reconstruction and embellishment. In 1928, the City Council of Belgrade allocated a parcel of land in Kalemegdan, formerly possessed by the Army, for the monument: “in the most beautiful part of Kalemegdan Park, which commands one of the most beautiful European landscapes, and in the vicinity of which the home of France will be rising soon” (the French embassy built in 1928–32). France responded to this gesture by setting up monuments to King Peter I the Liberator and King Alexander I the Unifier in Paris, memorials in Orleans and Marseilles, and by naming one of central Paris avenues after King Peter I of Serbia.

Description

The design of the monument was entrusted to the world renowned Croatian sculptor Ivan Mestrovic (Vrpolje, modern Croatia, 1883 – South Bend, Indiana, USA, 1962), who made a model in his Zagreb studio (Mestrovic Gallery). The sculpture was cast in fourteen pieces at the Art Foundry of the Academy of Fine Arts using the lost wax technique. The pieces were joined to form two halves of the vertically divided sculpture, transported to Belgrade and assembled together on the site. The monumental figure, over four metres tall, represents France rushing to Serbia’s aid. The expressive movement of the allegorical female figure, an important motif in Mestrovic’s sculptural work, evokes and glorifies the national spirit of France, suggesting energy, leadership, courage and faith. Monumentality, typical of Mestrovic’s sculptural expression, is emphasized by mounting the massive form of the central female figure on a seven-metre-high pedestal made of blocks of Brač “marble” (in fact, grey Adriatic limestone turning white with time). The pyramidal structure of its geometric mass sets the rhythm of gradual increase in emphasis towards the central scene and ensures stylistic unity between the monument and the surrounding ground laid out in the geometric pattern of the French garden. By virtue of being located at the far end of the main alley that extends beyond the park borders and into the city’s main street (Knez Mihailova), the monument becomes a significant visual landmark. Engraved on its front are the year of erection and the dedication “A la France”, and on the back, the inscription “We love France as she loved us 1914–1918”. The sides of the base of the pedestal feature narrative compositions in low relief at the eye level of the viewer. The reliefs were executed after Mestrovic’s drawings by the sculptors Frano Kršinić, who oversaw the work, and Antun Augustinčić, as well as Grga Antunac, Šime Dujmić and Orlandini. Without encroaching into the surrounding space, the reliefs form an organic part of the pedestal, with the carved sections fitted with precision, while leaving the joints visible in the spirit of Egyptian monumentalized relief. The repetitive row of figures in the scene known as Warriors on the left side follows the principle of isocephaly on the model of the bas-relief depicting Assyrian archers, a motif Mestrovic elaborated in relief and lithography. It evokes the bond forged by Serbian and French soldiers on the Salonika Front. On the opposite side, the more softly modelled allegory of the Sorbonne alludes to the French educational aid extended to Serbian youths during and after the war. The original sketch for this relief, depicting France as a woman breastfeeding Serbian children (now kept at Mestrovic Gallery), was altered at the suggestion of the Director of the French Institute in Zagreb (Raymond Warnier).

After the revolution and the overthrow of the monarchy, the female figure of Marianne, national symbol of the triumph of French republicanism, found expression in many works of art: she is shown as a leader singing the Marseillaise in Francois Rude’s Departure of Volunteers on the Triumphal Arch in Paris; in Eugène Delacroix’s famous painting Liberty Leading the People; or as the great mother feeding her children in Daumier’s study Republic from the Musée d’Orsay. These and similar allegorical depictions of France as a determined female figure with the characteristic Phrygian bonnet are clear historical references of relevance for Mestrovic’s conception of the monument in Kalemegdan.

Reliefs "Sorbonne" and "Warriors"

Reliefs "Sorbonne" and "Warriors"

The manner of formal stylization and the force of movement bring the figure close to the Sezession style. The logic of its vigorous forward motion, which can be traced back to late Hellenistic sculpture, is based on placing the entire weight of the figure on the left foot and establishing static equilibrium between dominant planes: between twisted masses of the upper body with the jutting right shoulder and the long taut arc of the right leg, and the cumulative mass of the drapery and left arm. The arrangement of the main planes and the lateral location of reliefs shift the beholder’s viewpoint to the sides of the monument. Even though the side aspect is visually richer, Mestrovic established the (ideal) frontal viewpoint in order to emphasize the dignity and importance of the central figure. A shift away from naturalism and elements of modern inspiration are most readily observable in the treatment of drapery, which assumes a fantastic shape which, viewed from the rear, makes the figure almost unrecognizable. The fusion of the left arm with the drapery serves to produce an almost aerodynamic form, with the horizontal lineation of the drapery folds suggesting the force of movement which almost lifts the figure into the air. The use of the drapery folds suggests the author’s idea to evocation of wings, thereby coming closer to the ideal of victory, the famous late Hellenistic winged Nike of Samothrace.

Veliki Kalemegdan park

Location and importance

The monument was set up in the vicinity of Karadjordje’s Gate of the Fortress of Belgrade, on the former site of the monument to the leader of the First Serbian Resurrection against Ottoman rule, Karadjordje, erected by the Ministry of War in 1913, after the victories in the Balkan Wars, to mark the 100th anniversary of the creation of a regular Serbian army by Karadjordje. In 1916 the occupying AustroHungarian force blew up the monument with dynamite in order to replace it with a colossal bronze statue of Franz Joseph. After the liberation of Belgrade, this statue was found on a Sava barge, melted down and reused for bells for Serbian Orthodox churches, the largest of which was donated to the church popularly known as Ružica, in Kalemegdan. The initiative to erect a monument to Karadjordje launched in 1857 falls among the earliest activities relating to the practice of producing public monuments in Serbia. Mestrovic’s monument set up in its former place took advantage of the powerful symbolism of the fortress as a battlefield site and its remarkable location above the two rivers, overlooking the national and historical significance of the location originally intended for the memorial to Karadjordje.

The Monument of Gratitude to France belongs to the post-World War I phase of Mestrovic’s oeuvre which produced the largest number of his monumental works marked by a lessening concern with detail and the emphasis on the underlying idea. The monument introduced expressiveness instead of the hitherto usual realistic and narrative concept, contributing to the evolution of public monuments in Belgrade. Based on its cultural and historical value, it was designated a cultural property in 1965, and a cultural property of great significance for Serbia in 1983 (“Sl. glasnik RS”, no. 28/83).

Literature

• CHPIB Documentation
• Svetislav Marodić, “Spomenik zahvalnosti Francuskoj”, B.O.N. no. 21, 21–22 Nov. 1930
• “Pred svečanost otkrivanja Spomenika zahvalnosti Francuskoj”, Politika, 9. Nov. 1930
• “Osvećenje crkve Ružice”, Politika, 12 Oct. 1925
• Mila Jeftović, “Spomenik Karadjordju Paška Vučetića”, Nasledje 3 (2001)