Name of Object:

Traitor

Other name of the Object (second name):

The Revengers

Location:

Belgrade, Serbia

Holding Institution:

The National Museum

 About The National Museum, Belgrade

Date of Object:

Around 1925

Author:

Pavle “Paja” Jovanovic (1859, Vrsac, Serbia-1957, Vienna, Austria)

Inventory Number:

31- 578

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Oil on canvas

Dimensions:

100 x 150 cm

Provenance:

Juan Des Pins, France

Description:

During his frequent travels across the Balkans in the 1880s, Paja Jovanović acquainted himself with the ethnic makeup of the population, particularly in Lower Zeta (present-day Podgorica and the surrounding area), in the neighbourhood of Bar and in the border-lying area with Albania. It was here that Albanian, Serbian and Montenegrin inhabitants intermingled, so their characters, physiognomies, customs and vivid national costumes were entwined and fused into a whole in the paintings of Paja Jovanović. The image of capturing or trying a traitor, who, according to tribal custom, awaited sentencing, is certainly a noteworthy genre subject among those he selected to depict the life and customs of peoples in the Balkans. Unlike the first version, painted by Jovanović in 1885, this replica of The Traitor from the mid-1920s was painted in a more free-handed manner, in broad brush strokes and without insistence on details.

Citation of this web page:

Petar Petrovic "Traitor" in "Sharing History", Museum With No Frontiers, 2025.
https://sharinghistory.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;AWE;sb;3;en

Prepared by: Petar Petrovic
Copyedited by: Daniel de la VegaDaniel de la Vega

Daniel de la Vega is a copy editor based in Portland, Oregon. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in linguistics from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 2014 and has since done editing and localization work on everything from college applications to magazines to video game dialogue.

MWNF Working Number: RS 003