The Serbian orthodox church of St. Archangel Michel and Gabriel in Novi Kneževac, according to the written sources, was built in 1755. as it is written at the entrance of the church and has baroque style characteristics. It was built on the place where has already been a church of dilapidated material. During the time there were made a lot of changes on church itself, mainly at the front part, which is today completely plain, without decoration and with two inapplicable doors which were put later in the church. On the front part you can see the bell tower in the baroque style. Side fasade are with recessed niches where are smaller windows with segment finishing. Inside the church is iconostasis with plain and symmetrically divided icon frames., which are specially in the second and third zone decorated by engraved floral motives. According to the facts in the protocol of Temišvar eparchy, the church community Kanjiža (Novi Kneževac was called Turska Kanjiža and it belonged to Temišvar eparchy) asked for the permission to paint the iconostasis. The agreement was made with the painter Teodor Popović, icon-painter from the famous artist family from Bečkerek and it was allowed and signed on the meeting on May,24.1806. According to the note on the Most Holy Mother’s throne in the Serbian orthodox Church in Novi Kneževac, iconostasis was painted by Georgije Popović in 1807., and it is supposed that the death of Teodor Petrović (1807) was the reason for Georgije, his son, to take over the business. This his earliest work where the appearances are realistic with rich dresses and overcoats with folds in baroque style. The icons on the iconostasis are free of traditional painting which can be seen only in the use of gold on the clothes, while the postures and appearances of the angels are made in baroque style. However the paintings on the iconostasis were restored in 1930., his art work, characteristic for the end of XVIII and beginning of XIX century, has remained recognized and after that. The long written document about restoration of the iconostasis stands on the Most Holy Mother Throne above the icon of the Most Holy Mother with the Christ which was painted by Nikola Aleksić, where were written the facts of the artists of decoration which have done the work. In the time of Hungarian uprising, Aleksić was working on the wall paintings in the church. In 1848. the community and Nikola Aleksić made the agreement for this work but the only condition was that painter won’t get any money in advance but when he finishes the work. At the outside wall there is a note about that: “Painted St. Church in 1848. restored in 1930.” The work of Aleksić can be recognized by monumental compositions with the drawing as the main part of the construction of the painting as well as the colors from pale violet, pale ocher and blue color.
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