Page 184 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes

Byzantine Painting through Contemporary Eyes
From the Byzantine frescoes of Mistra to the 20th century abstract painting
In Byzantine compositions the light is embodied within the forms, first and foremost because the colour is perceived as a carrier of light and not as a reflection of it. Secondly, as we have discussed in the first chapter, not only the human figure, but also other fea- tures in Byzantine compositions are rendered as forms that dynamically embody light within them. Rooted in a centuries-long artistic tradition and simultaneously rooted in the experience of Byzantine theology, the characteristic aesthetic concept of light em- bodied within the form in Byzantine painting does not constitute merely a canon of symbolic meaning. Also, neither the concept of the embodied light nor the tendency towards abstraction in Byzantine painting could sufficiently be explained as merely technical or merely painterly means for encouraging the viewer to engage in an aesthet- ic interaction with the image.
For a byzantine painter, during the process of rendering of each composition, this embodied light constitutes both the point of commencement and the objective of the simultaneous theological contemplation and aesthetic conception of the visual theme. In most representative examples of the byzantine painting tradition, the theological con- templation and the aesthetic conception constitute a unified experience rather than two distinctive experiences. For example, in some of the best examples of Late Byzantine painting, we can find details of the robes of the depicted figures to resemble swirling galaxies that embody and carry light in rhythmic, cosmic kind of motion. With his/her paintbrush the painter renders the drapery folds in a musicalised manner, which effort- lessly radiates with rhythm and harmony. The galaxy analogy and the music analogy are only two of many that could be made but the basic point of such notional departures from what is being depicted is precisely the fact that tendency towards abstraction in Byzantine painting is very much associated with a transcendental experience rooted in the overall Byzantine artistic tradition, or more generally rooted in the overall world- view of the Byzantine civilisation.
As the viewer engages with a Byzantine composition, the features of the robes as well as other elements often allude to abstract notions and introspective experiences. It would be hard to imagine that such or similar contemplative processes were not also part of the
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