Shepherd

Ivan Meštrović, artist

1883–1962

Shepherd, 1908–1911

Where object was made: Rome, Italy Paris, France Vienna, Austria or Yugoslavia (present-day Croatia)

Material/technique: bronze

Dimensions:
Object Height/Width/Length (Height x Width x Length): 96.5 x 42 x 102 cm
Object Height/Width/Length (Height x Width x Length): 38 x 16 9/16 x 40 3/16 in

Credit line: Museum purchase: Swannie Smith Zink Fund

Accession number: 1959.0006

On display: Michaelis Gallery

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Empowerment

Heroic Serbian ballads served as the inspiration for this work by Croatian artist Ivan Meštrovic. A shepherd cradling bagpipes was one of several sculptures from Meštrovic’s Kosovo Cycle that were intended for his proposed Vidovdan Temple. Considered by some to be the finest work of Serbian folk poetry, the ballads in the “Battle of Kosovo” cycle tell the story of the 14th-century defeat of the Serbian Empire at the hands of the Turks.

Empowerment

Megan Young, 2012:
This work was part of the artist's "Kosovo Cycle," conceived as part of the Temple of Kosovo, which Meštrović hoped would become a South Slav pantheon built on kosovo Polje, the "Field of the Blackbirds.