‘Christian Monuments, Tassorić’ / ‘Graveyard at Tassorić’

Page featuring engravings (made after drawings by Arthur Evans), captioned ‘Christian Monuments, Tassorić’ (top) and ‘Graveyard at Tassorić’ (bottom), published in Arthur J. Evans, Through Bosnia and the Herzegóvina on Foot during the Insurrection, August and September 1875 (London, 1876), p.357.

Artist: ‘W. J. M.’ (initials of engraver), after an original drawing [1941.8.173] by Arthur John Evans
Date of publication: 1876
Continent: Europe
Geographical area: Southern Europe
Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Region/Place: Tassorič
Cultural group: European Bosnian | Turkish
Format: Woodcut engraving
Page size: 234 x 141 mm
Acquisition: Henry Balfour. Bequeathed February 1939

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Research notes: It has been identified by Philip Grover that the lower of these two woodcut engravings by ‘W. J. M.’ (initials of unidentified engraver) was based on an original drawing [1941.8.173] by Arthur John Evans, being the depiction of a graveyard visited at Tassorič. It was published in Evans’ account of his journey, Through Bosnia and the Herzegóvina on Foot during the Insurrection, August and September 1875 (London, 1876), p.357, printed with the caption ‘Graveyard at Tassorić’. Evans recorded in the volume: ‘The seat on which we quaffed our mocha here was supported by two fragmentary bases of Roman columns; but in a graveyard hard by, which we had leisure to examine, were modern monuments of still greater interest. These were the gravestones of the Roman Catholic inhabitants of Tassorić, which were ornamented with incised crosses and floral devices of an elegance indeed surprising when it is remembered that these were the work of rude peasants, unable to write even the names of their departed kinsmen whom they wished to honour’: Through Bosnia and the Herzegóvina on Foot, p.356. The same engraving was earlier published in the British illustrated newspaper The Graphic, 9 October 1875, p.348 captioned at bottom of the page ‘Christian and Turkish Graves Side by Side, Tassoric, Herzegovina.’ A similar engraving of the same cross as depicted in the upper (right) woodcut was also published in the The Graphic, 9 October 1875, p.348 printed with the caption ‘Christian Gravestone, Tassoric, Herzegovina’.