Lot 90: Gazi Husrev Beg Mosque, Sarajevo

Spiro Bocaric (Yugolsavian, 1878-1941)
Gazi Husrev Beg Mosque, Sarajevo
signed, inscribed and dated 'S. Bocaric Sarajevo 1909.' (lower left)
oil on canvas
30 x 37½ in. (76.2 x 95.3 cm.)
Painted in 1909.

The increasing influence of Islam on Bosnia in the 16th Century led the Ottomans to undertake construction of many Islamic monuments, particularly mosques and bridges. The main mosque in Bosnia is the Gazi Husrev Beg Mosque (fig. 1), named after the Governor of Bosnia, and built in 1531 by Mimar Sinan, the same architect who later built the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne for Sultan Selim I. The mosque underwent reconstruction in 1996 after being damaged in the war.


(fig. 1) Gazi Husrev Beg Mosque, Bosnia.