page_title: Migration of the Serbs (painting)
section_title: Reception and legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Migration of the Serbs (painting) / Reception and legacy
context_page_description: Seoba Srba is a set of four similar oil paintings by the Serbian artist Paja Jovanović that depict Serbs, led by Archbishop Arsenije III, fleeing Old Serbia during the Great Serb Migration of 1690–91. The first was commissioned in 1895 by Georgije Branković, the Patriarch of Karlovci, to be displayed at the following year's Budapest Millennium Exhibition. In the view of the Serbian clergy, it would serve to legitimize Serb claims to religious autonomy and partial self-administration in Austria-Hungary by upholding the contention that Serbs left their homeland at the behest of the Holy Roman Emperor to protect the Habsburg Monarchy's borders.
  Measuring 380 by 580 centimetres, the first painting was completed in 1896, and presented to Patriarch Georgije later that year. Dissatisfied, the Patriarch asked Jovanović to adjust his work to conform with the Church's view of the migration. Though Jovanović made the changes relatively quickly, he could not render them in time for the painting to be displayed in Budapest, and it therefore had to be unveiled at the Archbishop's palace in Sremski Karlovci.
context_section_description: The painting was well-received in Serbia and abroad; it has since attained iconic status in Serbian popular culture. An allusion to it is made in Emir Kusturica's 1995 film Underground, in which war refugees are depicted marching towards Belgrade in similar fashion, following the German bombing of the city in April 1941. Several authors have noted similarities between Jovanović's depiction of the migration and images of other upheavals in Serbian history. Historian Katarina Todić observes that there are striking similarities between the painting and photographs of the Royal Serbian Army's retreat to the Adriatic coast during World War I. Judah remarks that the composition resembles images of the exodus of Krajina Serbs following Croatia's Operation Storm in August 1995.
  The journalist John Kifner describes Migration of the Serbs as a "Balkan equivalent to Washington Crossing the Delaware ... an instantly recognizable [icon] of the 500-year struggle against the Ottoman Turks." Professor David A. Norris, a historian specializing in Serbian culture, calls Jovanović's approach "highly effective", and writes how the stoic attitude of the priests, warriors and peasants reminds the viewer of the historical significance of the migration. He asserts that Migration of the Serbs and similar paintings stimulated a "revived collective memory" among the new Serbian middle class, "transforming ... folk memory into a more modern vehicle for the invention of a new national ideology based on the Serbian struggle for freedom from foreign domination." Art historian Michele Facos describes the painting as a celebration of the Serbs' "valiant effort to defend Christian Europe against ... the Ottoman Turks." The historian Noel Malcolm doubts the historical veracity of depictions of Arsenije leading vast columns of refugees, saying that there is no concrete evidence to confirm or deny that the number of migrants exceeded 40,000, as Church leaders claimed.
  Filipovitch-Robinson ranks the painting among Jovanović's three best works, alongside The Takovo Uprising (1894) and The Proclamation of Dušan's Law Codex (1900). This view is shared by the art historian Jelena Milojković-Djurić, as well as Judah. Filipovitch-Robinson praises Jovanović's "uncompromising realism" and commends his portrayal of the migrants. She writes that the Pančevo version "validates Jovanović as an insightful commentator on ... Balkan history", and is indicative of "the methodology and technical skill which had already brought him international acclaim." Jovanović "persuades the viewer of the believability and authenticity of the event," she writes. "He captures the determination, strength, and dignity of a people. [...] Regardless of the reasons for this migration, they move forward in unison to meet the hard challenges of an unknown land."
caption: The journalist John Kifner characterizes the painting as "a Balkan equivalent to Washington Crossing the Delaware" (pictured)
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