The Zderzak Gallery Archive kindly invites you to the presentation of the discovery and research methods

Succession Painting of the Kings of Montenegro from the Workshop of Vittore Carpaccio (1460/65-1526). 
Discovery and method

lecture
Jan Michalski

on Saturday, January 18, 2025 at 1:15 p.m. 

A two-hour lecture with a coffee break.
Admission free.
During the meeting, we raise funds for the Hospice of St. Lazarus in Kraków.

R.S.V.P.
Please confirm your attendance by phone (12 257 56 34) or by email: zderzak@zderzak.pl We remind you that photographing objects at the exhibition requires a license.

Method
Three years after the presentation of the discovery in Kraków (Who is who in Carpaccio’s painting, The Zderzak Gallery Archive, 9.11.2021), we will discuss the method of solving the problem of „unknown Renaissance painting depicting 42 people, two dogs and a demon”. We will look deep into the structure of meanings, raising issues of parity, representation of Africans, topography, and royal genealogies.

Output
In their 2021 expert opinion, the Cabinet Turquin from Paris put forward three hypotheses: the painting depicts St. Tryphon exorcising Gordiana, the daughter of the Roman emperor, dates from around 1510 and is related to the work of Vittore Carpaccio in the Scuola Dalmata in Venice. The inscription on the cap of the first person on the left was overlooked.

The identification of the cult hero became the basis for creating a recursive tree and examining the identity of the figure. Reading the abbreviation on the cap, reconstructing the network of relationships and the little-known historical context revealed that the painting depicts the act of transferring royal power in Montenegro to the metropolitan bishops of Cetinje. The significant political event that left no trace in the archives.

Probability distributions
For over a year, databases collected by art historians, Balkanists, Slavists, Byzantinists, Orientalists, anthropologists, historians of fashion, religion, economy, Mediterranean navigation, sociologists of history, philologists, etc. were searched. A major step forward was establishing the affinity of the last kings of Montenegro with the aristocratic Buća family from Kotor, the center of the cult of St. Tryphon. Probably the founders of both succession panels, which are today in the Zderzak and the Rijksmuseum.

Programming and meta-narrative

The main author of the ideological program was Tryphon Buća, nephew of the last king of Montenegro and witness to his will. In the painting, he appears in the role of a theurgist, which clearly proves his agency. The peculiarity that he had to deal with, and for us a valuable meta-linguistic feature, was the secrecy of the event. The painting is an extraordinary message – it ostentatiously and very realistically shows something that no one had the faintest idea about. 

Reception of the discovery
Although the Kraków painting is a defining discovery, i.e. a database enabling the knowledge of other events, art historians and Balkanists have been silent. It seems, for two main reasons. The research used a method that goes beyond the formal systems of historical sciences, and the painting comes from a cultural borderland whose connection with Italy has disappeared. Jokingly speaking, it is today a cuckoo’s egg. Italians will say: „It’s a painting of Dalmatians!” Montenegrins: „It’s a painting of Italians!”. Since the political idea that it beautifully represents has achieved historical success, it can be considered a joke of Weltgeist.

We encourage you to familiarize yourself with the richly illustrated introduction to painting issues: https://www.academia.edu/117057463/_Rule_in_the_Midst_of_Your_Enemies_The_Political_Testament_of_the_Kings_of_Montenegro_from_the_Vittore_Carpaccio_Workshop