Dejan Medaković

Dejan Medaković (; 7 July 1922 – 1 July 2008) was a Serbian art historian, writer and academician. Medaković had served as President of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts from 1998 to 2003, as Dean of the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy (1971–1973) and was a member of the Matica srpska as well as other scholarly associations.

Life Dejan Medaković was born on 7 July 1922 in Zagreb (then the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (now Croatia) in an ethnic Serb family. His father, Đorđe Medaković, was an economist; his mother, Anastazija, a housewife. His paternal grandfather, Bogdan Medaković, had been a political leader of Serbs in Croatia during the Austro-Hungarian reign, president of the Serb Independent Party and president of the Croat-Serb Coalition and Speaker of the Croatian Sabor from 1908 to 1918. Dejan Medaković's great-grandfather Danilo had lived in the Kingdom of Serbia and held various positions in the administrations of princes Miloš and Mihailo Obrenović. He graduated in 1949 and later got his doctorate in 1954 at the Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy, in the Art History Department.

Medaković was also a writer and a poet. He published many studies, essays, monographs, reviews and articles on various topics ranging from new developments in arts to current social and political issues. His studies have been collected and published in several books: Srpski slikari XVIII-XX veka (Serbian Painters of the 18th Century) (1968), Putevi srpskog baroka (The Paths of Serbian Baroque) (1971), Istraživači srpskih starina (Explorers of Serbian Antiquity) (1985) and Barok kod Srba (The Serbian Baroque) (1988). He was also a major contributor to the six-volume History of the Serb People (1981–1993) and other important publications such as Serbian Art of the 18th Century (1980) and Serbian Art of the 19th Century (1981).

In addition, he authored several important art monographs and studies dealing with cultural heritage of the Serbian Orthodox Church, writing about the monasteries of Hilandar and Savina. Other important works by Medaković include The Chronicles of Serbs in Trieste (1987), Serbs in Vienna, Serbs in Zagreb, Images of Belgrade in Old Etchings, Selected Serbian themes and Letters. Medaković also penned five books of poetry and an autobiographical prose cycle titled Ephemeris.

Medaković was the recipient of many distinguished awards and honours: the Herder Prize; the Anton Gindely Prize; the City of Belgrade October Award; the Prosveta Annual Award; the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesverdienstkreuz); the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Arts; the Gold Medal of Merit of the Republic of Hungary, the Medal of Vuk Karadžić of the First Order and many others.

He died from cancer on 1 July 2008, at the Oncological Institute of Belgrade Hospital.

Honors and awards

Prosveta Reward for literature, philosophy and history 7 July Reward of Serbia 1990 – Herder Prize, Republic of Austria Gindeli Rewards, Republic of Austria The Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Arts October Reward of Belgrade Gold Medal of Merit of the Republic of Hungary Order of bischop of Zagreb Ist degree, Republic of Croatia Special Vuk's Rewards Annual Reward of Prosveta Order of Saint Sava, I degree Great Cross for Services to the Federal Republic of Germany Medal of Vuk Karadžić, I degree Crown of Despot Stefan Lazarević Golden ring of Despot Stefan Lazarević Bestseller reward, National library of Serbia

Works Research works

Books of poetry

Books of short stories

Other works Memoirs, autobiographical prose, letters, speeches: