Žetelica, A sculpture and immovable cultural property in the Savski Venac municipality of Belgrade, Serbia.
Žetelica is a life-size sculpture of Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture, standing in contrapposto with a sheaf of wheat in her arms. Cast in zinc and coated with a copper layer, it was made by Viennese sculptor Fidelis Kimel and signed with the year 1852. It stands in Topčider Park.
The sculpture was created in 1852 by Viennese sculptor Fidelis Kimel and brought to Belgrade, where it was installed in Topčider Park during the second half of the 1800s. It is the only surviving example of decorative park sculpture from that era in Belgrade and is now officially protected.
The figure is Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture, shown life-size with a sheaf of wheat in her hands. The Serbian name Žetelica, "the harvester", is the popular title by which Belgrade residents know the statue in Topčider Park.
The sculpture stands in Topčider Park, in Belgrade's Savski Venac municipality, and can be reached on foot along the park's paths. It is a protected cultural monument, so it is viewed from the path rather than handled. The figure is life-size, which makes the sheaf of wheat and the contrapposto stance easy to pick out at close range.
The work is rendered in academic realism with the woman posed in contrapposto, her weight shifted to one leg creating a natural, balanced stance. This sculptural technique of weight distribution was a hallmark of refined European sculpture of that period.
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