Živorad Nastasijević – My brother Momčilo – A Portrait from 1927 

The greatest part of the legacy of the renowned Nastasijević family from Gornji Milanovac is kept in the Museum of Rudnik and Takovo Region. The Nastasijević family legacy consists of a great number of personal items, paintings (more than a hundred oil on canvas, watercolours, drawings, frescoes…), music and drama plays, a rich family library, musical instruments, furniture, photographs, documents… Those items belonged to the oldest child Natalija (1888-1923) who was a philosopher, then a painter Živorad (1893-1966), a poet and a writer Momčilo (1894-1938), a composer and an architect Svetomir (1902-1980), a writer Slavomir (1904-1983), a historian Darinka (1897-1978), a mathematician Slavka (1899-1982), as well as their parents Nikola and Milica Nastasijević.

The portrait titled My brother Momčilo, which Živorad Nastasijević painted in 1927 when he had already founded The Artists Society Zograf with like-minded group of people, actually represents the idea according to which modern Serbian art should be expressed by means of connecting tradition with contemporary spirit. Besides those characteristics typical for “zograf”, such as protuberant expressive eyes, stiff figures and colourful icons, one can also notice the influence of the Renaissance in this painting through the presence of the painted person’s gestures – in the case of Momčilo Nastasijević, those would be the book which he is leaning on, as well as his hand gesture.

X