MONASTERY OF THE ARCHANGELS-GABRIEL-ET-MICHEL (МИХАИЛ МАНАСТИР МИХАИЛ МАНАСТИР АРХАНГЕЛИ МАНАСТИР)
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Located at 600 m above sea level, in the middle of an oak forest, this Orthodox monastery (Кучевишки Манастир/Kučeviški Manastir) houses amazing frescoes from the 16th and 17th centuries. Dedicated to the archangels Michael and Gabriel, it was founded in 1330 by the Serbian lord Radoslav Hlapen, and then repeatedly modified. The catholicon (main church), in particular, was equipped with a narthex around 1630. The most surprising parts of its frescoes are on the upper parts of the east and west walls. In the great scene of the Last Judgment, the artists give a very free interpretation of the "Vision of the Four Beasts" from the Book of Daniel announcing the coming of the kingdom of God. Each ruler of a "perishing kingdom" is associated with a wild beast: a lion for Nebuchadnezzar (Babylon), a bear for Porus (a Greek king of India), a wolfhound for Cyrus (Persia) and a leopard for Alexander the Great (Macedonia). This composition is also a rare example of Christian art in which Ottoman Turks - here wearing the fez - and Jews who arrived from Spain, here in the company of Moses, are represented. Opposite is the Tree of Jesse, which presents the presumed genealogy of Christ from Jesse, father of King David. In the form of a climbing vine are 88 portraits and 22 scenes. The first row at the bottom, partially erased, contains the portraits of eleven pagan figures from antiquity considered to be precursors of Christianity. Six have been identified: the philosophers Socrates (5th from the left), Plato (7th) and Aristotle (8th), the physician Galen (9th), a sibyl linked to the cult of Apollo (10th) and the historian Plutarch (11th).
Cryptograms. The church itself was repainted in 1591 with an incredible number of scenes and details in every corner. The windowsills, for example, have cryptograms that can only be deciphered with a code kept in the Serbian monastery of the Patriarchate of Peć, now in Kosovo. Some scenes are unique or very rare: the forty martyrs of Sebaste (dome), Judas plotting with the Jewish priests (very damaged), Judas vomiting wine in the scene of the communion of the Apostles, Arius, the inspirer of Arianism that tore the Church apart in thefifth century, being devoured by a monster in hell, etc. As for the narthex, the artists who worked here are anonymous. But the presence of a rare depiction of St. Achilles of Larissa indicates that at least some of these late sixteenth-century artists came from Thessaly, Greece.