The Proclamation of Dušan's Law Codex

The Proclamation of Dušan's Law Codex (Serbian: Proglašenje Dušanovog zakonika, Serbian Cyrillic: Проглашење Душановог законика) is the name given to each of seven versions of a composition painted by Paja Jovanović which depict Dušan the Mighty introducing Serbia's earliest surviving law codex to his subjects in Skopje in 1349.

The Royal Serbian Government commissioned the first version for 30,000 dinars in 1899, intending for it to be displayed at the following year's Exposition Universelle (world's fair) in Paris.

After consulting with the politician and historian Stojan Novaković, Jovanović decided against painting a scene from Dušan's coronation, and opted to depict the proclamation of his law codex instead.

In 1349, Dušan issued a national legal code from his capital, Skopje, one that applied only to the northern half of the empire where Serbs predominated.

[6] Because it only covers specific crimes, it was likely part of a three-part legal document that also included an abridgement of Matthew Blastares' Syntagma and the Law of Justinian.

The third part, Dušan's Code itself, was thus probably intended to supplement the first two texts by touching upon issues not covered in them rather than serve as a stand-alone legal system.

It was decided that Serbia's contribution to the fair would predominantly consist of art, most of which was to be displayed at the Serbian Pavilion, a building in the Serbo-Byzantine style designed by the architect Milan Kapetanović.

Given decades of political instability in the Balkans, the authorities sought to promote a positive image of their country abroad, especially by familiarizing Western Europeans with Serbian art.

His foremost goal was to emphasize the legitimacy of Serbia's contemporary territorial claims before the Great Powers, especially with regard to Kosovo, Macedonia and the Sandžak (then divided between the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary), and counter any negative views of the Serbian state.

For his domestic audience, Jovanović's goal was to remind his countrymen of Serbia's rich history and encourage patriotic sentiments.

[11][16] Since the church where the proclamation took place had long since been destroyed, he was forced to find an alternative, ultimately deciding to model it after the Visoki Dečani monastery given the similarities in their design.

Jovanović based this detail on a medieval correspondence that Novaković had discovered in the Venetian archives where Dušan is recorded having ordered 300 units of plate armour from Venice.

The heraldry depicted on the shields and the insignia of the various figures is based on examples from a medieval book titled Armaila Illyricorum.

The painting depicts Dušan exiting a church with his wife, Jelena, and son, Uroš, shortly after announcing that the law codex would be put into force.

Palman Bracht, a German mercenary who oversaw Dušan's personal bodyguard, stands at the far right among a row of other knights, and watches closely as the Emperor steps outside.

[19] The art historian Lilien Filipovitch-Robinson writes: Technically, the artist brought together an accumulation of his considerable study and experience as a painter of history, portrait, and genre scenes.

Every figure in the foreground and middle ground directs the eye steadily to the compositional vanishing point, Tsar Dušan.

[28] By way of this decision, the art historian Jelena Milojković-Djurić asserts, the Paris committee recognized that the painting was on par with those of the world's best visual artists.

[9] "By focusing on the famed reign of Tsar Dušan," she writes, "Jovanović was making a case for the respect with which Serbia should be regarded.

For Serbian audiences in particular, she continues, it alluded to the greatness of Serbia's past and implied that the country's restoration as a free, modern nation was within reach.