Initiation and initiative : an exploration of the life and ideas of Dimitrije Mitrinović

THE YOUNG BOSNIAN 17

from love-making and drinking, and you must believe me when I tell you that all of us remain true to this rule.”2> Gaciovic and Mitrinovic were both concerned to establish an ethical system based on this revolutionary morality of the Young Bosnians. For Mitrinovic, this manifested itself in a particular interest in the relationship between ethics and aesthetics.

Between 1907 and 1913 he wrote regularly for Bosanska Vila as a literary critic. During this period he developed further his belief in the moral and social mission of works of art. In 1911 he wrote in the review:

Every work of art has two values: an aesthetic value contained in the artistic form, and the ethical, national cultural value of the content within the form. The aim of art is always the expression of its theme, but not merely expression for itself. The meaning of a work of art is always contained in its subject matter, in its moral significance, moral symbols and moral value. A work is created for the sake of its purpose.”4

In the same year that this appeared, Mitrinovi¢ was sent by the Serbian government to report on the First International Art Exhibition in Rome. In Italy he shared rooms with Ivan Mestrovi¢, the Dalmatian sculptor,?5 and enthusiastically reviewed the artist’s work: praising not only the aesthetic qualities of the works exhibited, but emphasizing the importance of their national value in propagating the idea of Yugoslav unity.

I must admit that I have never had a deeper or more fine feeling of being a Serb than before the splendid ‘Malevolence’ by Mestrovié. Never has my heart had such a Serbian beat and never have I felt more crushingly the sacredness of revenge which will cry out at shameless men when from our blood speak out spirits like this statue of Mestrovi¢’s, alive with flesh and earth. Mestrovic’s ‘Malevolence’ is silent, but terrifyingly silent, although it has no soul, made of plaster of dead earth. Mestrovié is a prophet, and he who does not understand this, does not understand him, and has no moral right to enjoy his art. And this is what he prophesies: the resurrection of our entire people, both Serbian and Croatian.?6

Whenever he returned to Sarajevo he would attend meetings of the Young Bosnians, taking the opportunity to expound his ideas on the role of the arts and his ideal of Yugoslav unity. One of his associates from that period, Borivoje Jevtić, who was later to become Prime Minister of Yugoslavia, remembered him thus:

Somewhat above average height, broad-shouldered, with an energetic gait and holding a strong stick in his hand, Mitrinovié resembled some world-traveller,