mestrovic and serbian sculpture

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SECOND V CENTURYLONDON : ELKIN MATHEWS, CORK STREET


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The Vigo Cabinet SeriesAn Occasional Miscellany of Prose and Verse.

Royal i6mo. One Shilling net each Volume.

SECOND CENTURY.Kn i THE VIGO VERSE ANTHOLOGY.No. i. J*i- [From Early Volumes.No, 2. ILLUSIONS AND IDEALS. By R. DlMSDALENo, , GERMANERLYRICS AND BALLADS. By DAISY

LATIN. By K. W. LUNDIE.ircQAvq TN SONG By M \E>AME MURIEL RICHARD.' TOE RAIslo MOD' AND OTHER POEMS.By M, BARTLEET.

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MESTROVICSERBIAN SCULPTURE

BYA. YUSUF ALI

M.A., LL.M. (CANTAB.)

LONDONELKIN MATHEWS, CORK STREETM CM XVI


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DEDICATEDTO

THE SPEEDY SUCCESS OF THE ALLIESAND

THEIR INTIMATE MUTUAL UNDERSTANDINGA. YUSUF ALI

SEVENOAKSNov. 30, 1916


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Stac*

o&lFOREWORDHIS EXCELLENCY

M. JOVAN M. JOVANOVITCH,Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Pleni-potentiary of His Majesty the King of

Serbia to the Court of St. James'sLEGATION ROYALE DE SERBIE,

195, QUEEN'S GATE, LONDON, S.W.zqih Arov., 1916.

DEAR MR. YUSUF ALI,I have read with great interest your

study on Mestrovic and Serbian Sculp-ture. I thank you for the enlightenedand penetrating sympathy with which youhave focussed the principal traits of theart and soul of the Serbs.

I have no doubt that your study will


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FOREWORDcontribute to a better understanding ofthe Serbian Nation and its ideals, andwill thus help in the realisation of its justaspirations.

Agrees, Monsieur Yusuf AH, 1'assur-ance de mes sympathies les meilleures.

JOV. M. JOVANOVITCH.


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MESTROVIC AND SERBIANSCULPTURE

ZOLA once defined a work of art in a casualinscription in an album. " Un oeuvre d'art," hewrote, "est un coin de la nature vu a traversd'un temperament " a small bit of natureilluminated through a temperament. Thisillumination may come through an individualtemperament or a national temperament. Inthe case of the Serbian sculptor, Mestrovic, theillumination is both individual and national.

The individual temperament of an artistalways counts as an important factor. Butsometimes it gives the tone to the whole nationaltemperament. As the first great Serbiansculptor, Mestrovic is a pioneer ; it is his privi-

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MESTROVIC AND SERBIAN SCULPTURElege as a pioneer to stand out as a uniqueexponent of the national temperament of Serbia.

But what is a " national temperament " ?With reference to the Balkans, the term" national " or " nationality " has a wider signifi-cation than when it refers to the more settlednations of Europe and America. The best testof Balkan nationality is a living feeling of raceconsciousness.

Judged by this test, the Southern Slavs form,subject to a qualification on account of differ-ences of religion, a single nationality. Theynot only include the independent kingdom ofSerbia, with the territory acquired in the lastBalkan War, but also the independent kingdom ofMontenegro and the various Slav communities in-cluded in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Chiefofthese are the Serbs and Croats of Dalmatia (fromwhom Mestrovic is himself sprung) and Croatia,and the Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina.The inhabitants of all these tracts belong toa single race, and speak either an identicallanguage or dialects so closely akin as to form

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MESTROVl AND SERBIAN SCULPTUREa single language. But differences of religionconstitute a very living force among them, anddetract from the complete sense of unity andrace consciousness which the far-seeing Serbshave attempted to foster and realise. TheSouthern Slavs have never been noted as areligious race ; but their religious organisationhas been of incalculable value to them in thedark days of their history, and forms a line ofcleavage which the Jugo-Slav movement willhave to take account of. The Croats have beenmainly members of the Latin, as opposed to theEastern Orthodox Church, and their sympathies(though Serbian) are coloured by a moreWestern view of the Serbian problem than thatheld and passionately asserted by the Serbsof independent Serbia. Their civilisation, too,owes much to Venice and Italy, and this bringsthe Serbian ideal into apparent (but not irrecon-cilable) conflict with the Italians, who proposeto redeem their Italia Irredenta.

The half-million pure-blooded Serbian Mo-hammedans of Bosnia represent a religious

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MESTROVIC AND SERBIAN SCULPTURErevolt. Their temperament is naturally onewhich protests against the established order.When they were members of the Roman Churchthey broke away into Manichaean and otherheresies.

The Serbians proper belong mainly to theEastern Orthodox Church, but they have an inde-pendent organisation of their own. Quite earlyin their history (about the beginning of the thir-teenth century) they obtained the concurrence ofByzantium and the Monastery of Mount Athos(the mother seat of the Byzantine Church) tothe establishment of a self-governing nationalChurch, which, if it has not been pre-eminentfor spiritual gifts, has at least been a rallyingcentre and a bond of union for the Serbs in thedays of their subjection.

Besides religious divisions, there have alwaysbeen political divisions. In fact, Serbian politicsmay be defined as a corner of history viewedthrough a temperament. From the earliest times,when the Southern Slavs migrated from the Car-pathians to the Balkans in the seventh century,

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MESTROVIC AND SERBIAN SCULPTUREtheir history has been a constant succession offamily or political feuds, intermittently lit byflashes of an inner vision of unity and empire.Their position in the Byzantine Empire varied,and depended generally upon their position inthe Eastern Church. But they gradually estab-lished their independence. Stephan Dushan(1336-1356) made brilliant conquests, and con-ceived the dream of a Serbian Empire whichshould include Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albaniaand Byzantium under Serbian hegemony. Butafter his death the Vojvodes (nobles) fought,each for his own hand, until Serbian indepen-dence was extinguished in the onrush of theOsmanli Empire from the East. The decisivebattle was that of Kossovo (the " Field ofBlackbirds") in 1389, in which the Czar Lazarfell with all his chivalry. The whole of theBalkans formed, with brief intervals, for over 400years afterwards, a part of the Turkish Empire.

Kossovo is the pivot of Serbian history, andthe inspiring motive of Serbian art, music andpoetry. A cycle of heroic legends has grown

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MESTROVIC" AND SERBIAN SCULPTUREup round Kossovo. Serbian popular poetryalready attracted the attention of Europe at theend of the eighteenth century, and Goethetranslated the " Ballad of Hassan Aga's Wife'sLament" with great enthusiasm. Sir JohnBowring gave a rendering of Serbian popularpoetry in 1827, and more recently Mme. E. L.Mijatovic and M. Petrovitch have respectivelygiven English readers a fair taste of the cycleof Kossovo and of the hero tales and legends ofthe Serbians. To the present day it is a commonsight in Serbia to see a blind bard with his gusla(national one-stringed violin) wandering aboutfrom village to village and singing these herolegends to the accompaniment of the simplerhythm of popular music. The " Blind Gusla-Player " of Mestrovic is one of his mostcharacteristic pieces of sculpture : the bard'sface is shown with prophetic intensity aspossessed of a keener inner vision to compensatefor the loss of physical sight.The conflict of noble against noble alreadyappears in these Kossovo ballads, which, taken

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MESTROVIC AND SERBIAN SCULPTUREas a whole, read like an epic of hatred betweennoble and noble. The strong light of heroicdaring and valour in Milosh Obilic is contrastedwith the jealous pride of birth and the impotenttreachery of Vuk Brankovic. Milosh was theson of a shepherdess, reared on mare's milk.Vuk was jealous of him and hated him, andsowed suspicions of his loyalty in the mind ofCzar Lazar. He advised a policy of cautionwhen the challenge of Kossovo came, and isbranded and cursed as a "traitor twice in thefight

"by the bards. It is Milosh who

"flashesup like flame" and suggests that they should

die like men rather than " give away our landlike women." With two chosen companions asdauntless as himself he goes to the Turkishcamp and slays Sultan Murad with his ownhand. He is taken prisoner, and eventually,after the defeat of Kossovo, begs to be allowedto lie at the feet of " his own Czar Lazar." Suchis the conflict of loyalty and valour againstineptitude and treachery at Kossovo.From that time to the opening of the nine-


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MESTROVIC AND SERBIAN SCULPTUREteenth century the field of popular poetry isfull of heroes, but after Kossovo they are castin a different mould. They do deeds of greatindividual heroism, and sometimes figure inscenes of touching family pathos. But thesehave no national significance until we come tothe weakening of the Turkish grip with thevictories of Prince Eugene early in the eighteenthcentury. Thereafter the national stage of Serbiais filled with the rise of Kara George and hisfamily. In the nineteenth century begins thefeud of Obrenovic and his family with the houseof Kara George. Both these were heroes intheir time, and herdsmen of the same breed asthe old-time Milosh. The founder of the Obreno-vic was also a Milosh. The opening of thetwentieth century saw the Kara George familyre-established, and a new page opened in theheroic history of Serbia, of which only the firstfew lines have yet been written.Amid all this hatred, this division, this strife,this shame of subjection, there remained theSerbian spirit of sturdy independence, of self-


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MESTROVIC AND SERBIAN SCULPTUREreliance, of hardy love of adventure, of chivalrouslove of home and country. The ideas werenot perhaps very clearly expressed in art, music,or literature. Plastic arts flourished little amongthe Slavonic people, and the Eastern Churchplaced a ban on images almost as strict as thatof Islam. Painting never went beyond thestage of the Primitives in Byzantium itself, andwas almost unknown to the Serb shepherd andpeasant highlanders. But popular ballad litera-ture and folk music flourished as it rarelyflourishes among more settled communities. Alanguage rich and resonant built up for them afolk literature in intimate touch with their folkmusic. With no clear-cut mythology compar-able to that of Greece or of the Northern Sagas,or of the distant Hindus of a more cultured, ifsofter, Aryan stock, they peopled their worldwith heroes from their history heroes princi-pally of the defeat and disaster of Kossovo.These heroes are mighty men, but melancholy.They brood over wrongs and revenge. Theyare violent and revel in blood, even like the Vila,


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METROVIC AND SERBIAN SCULPTUREthe legendary spirit that loves fighting andslaughter. Their chivalry and protection of theweak take a dark tinge from such scenes of his-tory. The irresistible Ban Strahinya goes andrecovers his treacherous wife from the foe. Herfather and brothers would have killed her, buthe spares her life and removes the stain on hisown honour by foiling the rage of the spoiler.Honour is not to be understood in the courtlysense of the soft troubadours, nor love to becelebrated in the persuasive strains of theminstrelsy of France. Woman, in the jointfamily system of the Zadruga, can never be theQueen of Chivalry that she was in the West.But there is a strong sense of rough-and-readyjustice, and a chivalrous impulse for the protec-tion of the weak.

Withal there is a national consciousness thatamounts to more than religion. This conscious-ness can build its dreams both on the past andfor the future. In the past was the dream ofthe great Serbian Empire of Dushan all butrealised. It was mighty in its overthrow in the

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MESTROVIC AND SERBIAN SCULPTUREheroic mould of the men whose deeds were sungnightly in the villages men who were valorousin defeat and never abandoned the larger hopeembodied in the bardic dreams of the future,When the events of the nineteenth centurygradually won autonomy for the Balkan States,these dreams were revived. Such dreams neces-sarily involve a conflict of nationalities, but itis for the artists to interpret them, to investthem with new meaning, to purify them of thelust of bloodshed, and with their magic to gildthe strength of Hercules with the radiance ofApollo and the Muses.

Such is the meaning of Mestrovic and hisSerbian sculpture. The art is not mainly re-ligious ; it is not mainly personal ; it is national.Its whole ideals are bound up with the growthand glory of the dream of a united Serbiannation, including all the fragments and territoriesat present comprised in other political units.Its aim is not so much to seek beauty or todiscover moral grandeur as to express thepolitical ideal of Great Serbia, to which all

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MESTROVIC AND SERBIAN SCULPTUREindividual excellence must minister. And thisnational ideal does not rest so much on achieve-ment as on the hard grit of its heroes, whichmust be chiselled out to the form of the goddessof nationhood of the sculptor's dreams.

It is therefore fitting that the central ideaof the whole of Mestrovic"'s art should be em-bodied in the design of the temple to be erectedat Kossovo. Kossovo is the starting-point ofthe nation's legendary heroes. It should be thesacred home of the nation's hopes of the future.It would be frankly a place for the worship ofthe motherland. The wooden model of thetemple was shown by Mestrovic in 1912 atBelgrade, and Serbian opinion has endorsed theartist's success in voicing national aspirations.Among the recently published books in Englishon Serbia is one by M. Petrovitch, of the SerbianLegation in London. It is significant that theauthor accepts Mestrovic as the true interpreterof Serbia's innermost thought.

The general design of the temple is simplebut imposing. In front is a lofty gateway with

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MESTROVIC AND SERBIAN SCULPTUREthree passages. The only ornaments are massivebronze figures of lions, horses and eagles forcourage, swiftness, and piercing vision, the threequalities which Serbian tradition dwells uponin Serb heroes. Through the gateway runs along passage open to the skies and flanked bycaryatids and walls. These caryatids are astudy in themselves. They are all differenttypes of Serb womanhood in the long night ofhistory. There are those that are lowly, witheyes downcast and weeping for their nation.These carry the burden of their nation on theirhead, but they are erect, and are, for all theirsorrow and suffering, mothers of heroes. Thereare the more fortunate ones, typifying freeSerbia and Montenegro. Then there are inter-mediately the unredeemed women, Bosnia,Dalmatia, Croatia, Slovenia, and the other piecesof Serbia still in subjection. They are sadindeed, but the light of hope is on their brows,and they support the edifice of a regeneratedSerbia as much as Old and New Serbia, nowunited.

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MESTROVIC AND SERBIAN SCULPTUREParallel to the central passage, but screened

from it by walls, run two roofed cloisters, withmassive Doric pillars. These are in completeharmony with the prevailing sentiment thetype of strength combined with simplicity. Atthe end of the passage, nearest the shrine, is alofty pyramidal tower in six stages, ornamentedby colossal winged figures. The central massof the temple is octagonal, looking to the eightprincipal points of the compass. Unity is givento the whole by the central octagonal dome.The open cloisters round the temple are reachedby spacious steps on three sides, leading throughopen cloisters to the temple itself. The threesmaller domes are replicas of the large centraldome, and serve to balance the structure of thedome, the tower, and the gateway.

Such is the general architecture of thetemple, which is interpreted and analysed indetail by the sculpture. Here we are at oncein the region of the heroic and the colossal.Take that great Sphinx which holds in its silentlips the symbol of the destinies of Serbia. That

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MESTROVIC AND SERBIAN SCULPTUREcolossal bronze winged female figure surmount-ing a pylon of the Serbian Pavilion at the RomeExhibition of 1911, which won a European famefor Mestrovic, then only in his twenty-ninthyear, stamps the mark of vigorous originalityon his work. Both the pose and the figure andthe poise of the wings break away from conven-tional standards. There is a faint flavour ofEgyptian art, but it might equally be a remini-scence of Chaldaca. Mestrovic himself has toldme that he is not conscious of any Egyptianinfluence on his work. We can see that bothclassical and modern influences, if they hadmodified his Slav originality, would have left theworld the poorer of his simple striving impulse,his directness and symbolism. If they requirea little familiarity before we can understandthem, they fully repay the trouble of under-standing them. Even the influence of Vienna,that pseudo-centre of modern European art,left Mestrovic untouched, though his life as aDalmatian necessarily came into contact withpowerful Viennese influences.

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MESTROVIC AND SERBIAN SCULPTUREWe noted directness as one of Mestrovid's

characteristics ; as in Russian literature, thatdirectness is combined with great complexity.The allegory of the bronze female figure is notcomplete in itself. There is a secondary allegoryin the torso of Milosh Obilic held in her righthand. It is a mere torso, with no head, a typeof Serbia in the making. The face of the femalefigure is worked with great elaboration. Theindication is rather of wrath than of power,rather of tragedy than of strength. Thus dothe secondary effects, almost unconsciously,interweave, with the primary effects, a story ofgreat artistic complexity.We have already referred to this hero, MiloshObilic, in speaking of the battle of Kossovo.His colossal head in plaster and the companioncolossal torso were designed for the centralhall of the temple to typify Serbian history inepitome. He represents not only Serbia's pastfor five centuries, but Serbia's future now beinghammered out by the blows of opposing forcesin the most gigantic conflict in history. In

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MESTROVIC AND SERBIAN SCULPTURESerbian history itself Milosh represents theforward democratic spirit, as opposed to anyaristocratic tendencies of tradition. In thissense the battle of Kossovo itself is not anevent of the past to Serbia, but speaks as a realliving force. Round Kossovo have clung thethoughts of Serbia in the last two Serbianwars, even as geographically Kossovo is on thewatershed, and feeds impartially the rivers ofthe Danube in the north and those of the Gulfof Salonika in the south.*

The beautiful white marble torso of Strahinyais Mestrovic's idealisation of manly beauty. Butnotice at once his departure from any classicaltradition. The Greek conception of Apolloaimed at grace and agility. Perhaps the Greekfigure was less muscular than the best developedmodern figure. In any case that does notinterest Mestrovie. His chief aim is realisticand national. He wants to see the Dalmatianpeasant's figure idealised, as all art must idealise,

* See Miss M. I. Newbiggin's Geographical Aspectof Balkan Problems.

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MESTROVIC AND SERBIAN SCULPTUREbut idealised with a stern respect for nature andfacts. Weight and muscle are given due promi-nence, as they needs must be in the tense musclesof a Slav wrestler stripped for the fray. Thestory of Strahinya Ban and his chivalry hasalready been referred to.The romance of Marko covers an enormousfield of Serbian legend. Mestrovic has madetwo studies of him, viz., a head and a colossalequestrian statue. Historically Marko was avassal of the Sultan, and loyally aided theTurks in their campaigns.* But in legend andpoetry he is a hero of superhuman strength,and is still living. He was the embodi-ment of a perfect knight. His eyes are, inthe language of the poet, " bright and fierceas those of a hungry wolf." He was strongof arm and fleet of foot, at once bold and loyal,generous to foes and chivalrous to women. Hehad a wonderful piebald horse named Sharatz,who shared in all the glories of his adventures.

* See Petrovitch : Hero Tales and Legends of theSerbians, p. 6.

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METROVIC AND SERBIAN SCULPTURESharatz knew the moment for kneeling down tosave his master from his adversary's lance, andthe moment for rearing and charging hisadversary's horse with his forefeet. His nostrilsexhaled a quivering blue flame, and Marko onSharatz was " a dragon mounted upon a dragon."Marko loved animals, and wandered for adven-tures through many lands, and the stories of hisvalour are almost as well known in Bulgaria asthey are in Serbia. He was supposed to havefought in the body with the Serbians in the lastBalkan wars. His real presence (it is asserted)was believed in by thousands in the Serbianarmy, and not merely imagined as an inspiringvision like that of the Angels of Mons, who weresupposed to have been seen by British soldiersin the first autumn of the war.

So far we have discussed purely nationalsubjects. . When we pass on to consider thereligious subjects, we find the same nationalcharacteristics. The Dalmatian's and the Serb'smental attitude towards the great subjects ofreligious art is different from that of his more

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MESTROVl AND SERBIAN SCULPTUREWestern Allies. The Serb's intense nationalism,his haunting sense of history and tragedy, iscarried into the Biblical figures of Mestrovic.The Serbian sculptor's elongated bronze headof John the Baptist may be contrasted with thefamous John the Baptist of Rodin. In Rodin'sBaptist there is ruggedness and prophecy, anda criticism of life ; but there is humility,righteousness, and the hope of Him who isto perfect life and crown it with glory. InMestrovic's Baptist the struggle and the agonyare predominant : the vision of the Cross blotsout all else. In both cases you can almost hearthe voice of one crying in the wilderness ; butMestrovic's Baptist is in despair because ofthe fruitless cry, and the brow, eyes, mouthand lips almost miss the sweet promise of theResurrection.

The bronze relief of Salome forms a com-panion work of art, and completes the picture.The triumph of the dancer, with the Baptist'shead on the charger, is almost described asfinal. It is a veritable frenzy of intensity. The

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MESTROVl AND SERBIAN SCULPTUREpoise of the head and the mouth combine, withthe energy of the dance and the muscular ten-sion of the arms, to visualise a scene of male-volent passion transcending humanity. Howweak, beside such a presentment, appears thetinted bust of Salome by Max Klinger in theLeipzig Museum !

This sense of pessimism and uncompromis-ing horror in sacred art is carried to the centralfigure in the Supreme Tragedy. ExamineMestrovic's plaster Crucifixion, and his woodenplaque in relief, the Deposition from the Cross.In the Western Churches the Christ is a figureof beauty and power. Even in His agony andHis sufferings the beauty and the power arealways predominant. Here in Mestrovic thereis agony and suffering unrelieved. The agonyand suffering constitute the power, and physicalprivation is the picture of moral beauty andperfection. This is the Byzantine tradition ;indeed, it is the primitive tradition, refinedaway by the neo-pagan or classical worship ofbeauty in the Renaissance.

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MESTROVI6 AND SERBIAN SCULPTUREThere are six figures in the Deposition from

the Cross. The Master is still in intense agony.The Divine calm of conquest over death andsuffering would be foreign to the atmosphereof the piece, and out of keeping with the feelingsand attitude of the five worshippers. To Mary,the Mother, there is no more light, but all isextinguished in utter darkness. To MaryMagdalene a devout kiss of the hand that isdead is as the bitterness of supreme sorrow.The third Mary can but wring her hands andtear her hair. The two male figures find them-selves absolutely dazed with the shock of thetragedy. The intense realisation of bitternessand suffering is unrelieved by any softer touch.When we come to modern and individualsubjects, we find less need of interpretation thanin the national and religious subjects. The in-dividual genius is still there : Mestrovic wouldnot be himself if he did not attempt to piercestraight through the veil to the truth he isstruggling to express. His plaster portrait ofRodin is one that could have been done by no

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METROVI AND SERBIAN SCULPTUREother hand. The attitude of the figure is whollyoriginal. Heroic genius is shown in the studyof the hands, which may be compared with theseparate study of a hand in bronze, a masterpiecein itself. But it is on Rodin's face that a loving dis-ciple has lavished all his strength, all his humour,all his veneration for his great master. You cansee here the spirit of old France rejuvenated ;titanic labour, which in art is the very light andenjoyment of life ; classical art lending a handto the new art in the Near Eastern horizon ;and the strength of purpose and the clear-ness of vision that are to triumph over allobstacles.

Three portraits of women give a glimpse ofthe domestic ideals in the sculptor's mind, inter-preting again the national ideals. In his mother'sportrait Mestrovic has reproduced the legendof Prince Marko's love for his mother. Mestrovicalso modelled a Pieta in bronze relief: the facein the Pieta seems to have been studied fromhis mother's face. There is not joy, perhaps,but there is calmness, the gift of the Woman

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MESTROVIC* AND SERBIAN SCULPTUREand Mother facing the turmoil of life ; there isearnestness, less a spur to action than atransmuter of action into piety ; and there isthe grace which must conquer sadness andsorrow.

The sculptor has also given portraits of hiswife and of his sister. The wife brings us outat once from the atmosphere of the past andits dreams into the actualities of to-day. Thereis pride and joy in life and youth, and just theleast coquettish poise of the head has not beendisdained. The sister is the Dalmatian peasantgirl personified ; the keynotes are simplicity anddirectness, and an artistic curiosity into thefuture. Here is an unwritten page of a life yetto be unfolded. The three women typify thePast, the Present and the Future.We have taken a rapid survey of Serbiannational characteristics and national histoiy inorder to understand the art of Mestrovic. Wehave seen that his heroes and his ideals havea direct bearing on the Balkan movement ofto-day. The exhibition of his sculpture in

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METROVIC AND SERBIAN SCULPTURELondon has brought home to the English peoplethe intense patriotism and national feeling ofthe Southern Slavs. Following on the Rodinexhibition, it has cemented the highest thoughtof the Allied nations by means of their art. Thegift of Rodin's work to the British nation, anda similar gift of one of Mestrovic's masterpieces,have indicated the response which British sym-pathy and action have stimulated in the Alliedminds. Such results fully justify the exhibitionof these sculptures in a national collection likethe Victoria and Albert Museum in London, evenin the case of so young an artist as Mestrovic.His own personality modest and unassuming,calm and determined has, by actual contactwith the best minds of England, done moretowards a true understanding of Slav andBalkan character than more direct modes ofexposition could have done. Such is the powerof art ; while it lays emphasis on nationalcharacteristics, its truth illuminates dark placesand serves to bring nations together.And what is Mestrovic's message to the

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MESTROVIC AND SERBIAN SCULPTUREgreat nation across the Atlantic ? It is straightand direct that the pride of a nation in peaceis no armour in the day of war. Driven fromits territory, homeless and wandering, the Serbiannation still lives, because its tragic spirit is beingrefined in the fire of battle.

NOTE. The name of Mestrovic* has been spelt ashe spells it, but in other Serbian names the popularWestern orthography has been followed for the con-venience of the general reader. The writer wouldlike to acknowledge the valuable assistance he hasreceived from M. Bogdan Popovitch, who has beengood enough to read over the proofs and to makevaluable suggestions.


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E, SHAYNES.

No. IX. AIRY NOTHINGS. (Humorous Verse.) By JESSIEPOPE,No. X. BUCCANEER BALLADS, By E. H. VISIAK.No. XL FLINTS AND FLASHES. By E. H. VISIA*.Ho, XII. THE PHANTOM SHIP. By E. H. VISIAK,w-VTTI PAGES ASSEMBLED. A Selection from the

Waitings, Imaginative and Critical, of FREDERICKWEDMORE.No , x V THE BATTLE FIENDS, By E. H. .VISIAK.

* * Other Voktntz ?*' preparation. -

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mestrovic and serbian sculpture

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