Description
Ana (Vukanović) Nemanjić (1125 – 1200) was a Serbian Grand Princess, the wife of Stefan Nemanja, the founder of the Serbian ruling dynasty of Nemanjić, and the mother of Stefan the First-Crowned, Vukan, and Saint Sava. There is conflicting information about her origins, but what history remembers is that Ana Nemanjić, together with her husband Stefan Nemanja, was the patron of numerous monasteries. Stefan Nemanja and Ana Nemanjić took monastic vows on the Annunciation in 1196, receiving the names Simeon and Anastasija. The monk Simeon retired to Studenica, and Anastasija to their endowment, the Monastery of the Holy Mother of God in Toplica, where she died in 1200. Her holy remains were later transferred to Studenica, the endowment and burial church of her husband, where they still rest today.
Stamp motif – detail of a fresco from the Peć Patriarchate.
Simonida Nemanjić (1294 – after 1345) was the only daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos and Empress Irene. The Serbian King Stefan Uroš II Milutin Nemanjić marked the beginning of his reign by conquering Skopje in 1282, and then the entire Vardar Macedonia. Emperor Andronikos II, after an attempt to regain lost territories and long peace negotiations, in 1299 offered the Serbian King Milutin the hand of his minor daughter as a guarantee of peace and friendship between Byzantium and Serbia. Her unusual fate was an inspiration to many artists, and her beauty was celebrated in songs and depicted in many frescoes and paintings. A fresco with her image in the Gračanica Monastery, in the Church of Holy Mother of God (Annunciation), painted around 1320, is considered one of the most valuable frescoes of Serbian medieval painting. After Milutin’s death in 1321, Queen Simonida took monastic vows. She died after 1345.
Stamp motif – detail of a fresco from the Gračanica Monastery.
Anna (Dandolo) Nemanjić (year of birth unknown – around 1265) was a Serbian queen, wife of King Stefan the First-Crowned and mother of the future King Stefan Uroš I. The daughter of Raniero Dandolo, Vice-Doge of Venice and Procurator of San Marco, she married Stefan Nemanjić in 1217, when they were crowned together, in the Church of St. Apostles Peter and Paul in Ras. The famous fresco “The Death of Queen Anna Dandolo”, which is painted on the north wall of the narthex of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Sopoćani, is dedicated to Queen Anna. The fresco depicts Queen Anna on a deathbed at the moment when an angel receives her soul, and Christ and the Mother of God appear at her headboard. The Serbian court is gathered around her deathbed. Her son and King Uroš I is depicted in royal robes with a crown on his head, with Princes Dragutin and Milutin standing behind him, and Princess Brnča behind them, while the Queen’s left hand is held and kissed by her daughter-in-law Queen Jelena. Archbishop Sava II is also depicted in the fresco.
Stamp motif – detail of a fresco from the Sopoćani Monastery.
Jelena Nemanjić (c. 1236 – 1314), also known in history as Helen of Anjou, was a Serbian queen, the wife of Serbian King Stefan Uroš I and the mother of Kings Dragutin and Milutin. She was a descendant of royal and noble families originating from the Byzantine and Hungarian regions, and was active and influential in all spheres of government, politics and diplomacy, but no less in construction and spiritual spheres. Along with Empress Jelena, wife of Dušan the Mighty, Helen of Anjou is the most frequently depicted woman in Serbian medieval painting. She took monastic vows in the Church of Saint Nicholas in Skadar. She died at the court in Brnjaci in 1314, and according to her own wishes she was buried in her endowment, the Gradac Monastery. She was canonized three years after her death.
Stamp motif – detail of a fresco from the Sopoćani Monastery.
Кatalina/Katarina (Arpad) Nemanjić (mid-13th century – after 1316) Hungarian princess from the Arpad dynasty, was the wife of King Stefan Dragutin Nemanjić, whom she married in 1268. The marriage was concluded as part of a peace treaty between Hungary and Serbia. Katalina became the Serbian queen, and Belgrade was part of the territory that King Dragutin received “as a dowry”. Helena of Anjou, Dragutin’s mother, was her mother-in-law and role model. She had numerous offspring, sons Vladislav and Urošic who are depicted as princes in artistic representations of the Nemanjić dynasty. She also had daughters Jelisaveta, Margarita and Ursa (Ursula). Jelisaveta’s descendant was Tvrtko, the first ruler of Bosnia and part of Serbia, who bore the title of King of Serbia and Bosnia. Katalina is the patron of the Tronoša Monastery near Loznica, from 1317.
Stamp motif – detail of a fresco from the Church of Saint Achilles in Arilje (copy from National museum of Serbia, copyist Rajko Nikolić).
Jelena (Stracimirović) Nemanjić (c. 1310 – 1376) was a Bulgarian noble woman and Serbian queen, and later empress, wife of Stefan Dušan and mother of Emperor Uroš V. The daughter of Despot Stracimir, she married Dušan on Easter, 1332. This marriage confirmed the alliance between Dušan and Jelena’s brother Jovan Aleksandar, who, in 1331, at the same time when the later Emperor Dušan overthrew his father Stefan of Dečani, overthrew Tsar Michael III Shishman, from the Bulgarian throne and proclaimed himself Emperor of Bulgaria. In her marriage to Dušan, she gave birth to a son, Uroš, who succeeded his father on the throne. Empress Jelena was of exceptional abilities, a skilled diplomat, a lover of good books, an intellectual, a pious and philanthropic woman. After the death of Emperor Dušan, Jelena took monastic vows, received the monastic name of Jelisaveta, and with her son Uroš she completed the construction of the Matejča Monastery near Kumanovo. She died in 1376 and, according to her own wishes, was buried next to Emperor Dušan.
Stamp motif – detail of a fresco from the Dečani Monastery.
Professional cooperation on the issue: Museum of the Serbian Orthodox Church except stamp and text for Кatalina/Katarina (Arpad) Nemanjić – National Museum of Serbia, Phd Bojan Popović, Museum Advisor
Artistic realization: Marija and Jakša Vlahović, MA academic graphic artists
