Page 185 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes

Chapter III
experience of Byzantine painters. This is even more obvious when we consider that cer- tain Modernists of the 20th century delved into the contemplative experience of Byzan- tine painters and found inspiration precisely in some of the transcendental aspects of the aesthetics of Byzantine art. This relationship between the tendency towards abstraction in Byzantine painting and the 20th century abstract painting constitutes an important realisation which significantly informs our contemporary reception of Byzantine paint- ing: Byzantine painting is diachronic not least because aspects of its contemplative, vi- sionary experience were relived through Modernism.
Contrary to the opinion according to which the tendency towards abstraction in Byz- antine painting is not related to the analogous tendencies of 20th century modern paint- ing8, in recent years studies have shown in a systematic manner the significant manifold relationship between the modern abstract painting of the 20th century and the Byzantine painting tradition.9 The following aesthetic comparisons, as well as the visual demon- strations included in the last three chapters of this book, go a significant step further as they practically demonstrate how this relationship may in fact be visually appreciated.
As shown in image 6, when we take out the human figures from the byzantine com- position of Transfiguration, that which remains is simply a vision of the uncreated light with which Christ shone on Mount Tabor. Moreover, we observe that the result of our experiment is peculiarly reminiscent of the abstract paintings of Kandinsky, such as that shown in image 7. This is neither a one-off nor an accidental instance, as many more analogous comparisons between Byzantine and 20th century abstract painting could be made. For example, as shown in image 9, while deliberately keeping the depiction of the curtain and the architectural motifs, we have extracted the human figures from the com- position of The Numbering at Bethlehem in Kalenić, and arrived at a result which is un- assumingly reminiscent of Rothko’s paintings, such as those shown in image 10.
8 For example, in the conclusion of his book entitled The Character and the Reason of the Abstraction in Byzantine Painting, George Kordis argues that: “The observed abstract mood (in Byzantine painting) does not seem to relate to the analogous tendencies of Modern painting, where the attrition of the natural form serves by rule the expressionistic inquiries and expresses beyond the form some spiritual, ideological or emotional content.” Our translation. The original excerpt in Greek reads as follows: «Ἡ παρατηρούμενη ἀφαιρετική διάθεση δὲ φαίνεται νὰ έχει σχέση μὲ ἀνάλογες τάσεις τῆς μοντέρνας ζωγραφικῆς, ὅπου ἡ φθορὰ τῆς φυσικῆς μορφῆς ὑπηρετεῖ, κατὰ κανόνα, ἐξπρεσσιονιστικές ἀναζητήσεις καὶ ἐκφράζει κάποιο ἐπέκεινα τῆς μορφῆς πνευματικό, ἰδεολογικό ἢ συναισθηματικὸ περιεχόμενο.» See: Γιώργος Κόρδης, Ὁ Χαρακτῆρας καὶ ὁ Λόγος τῶν Ἀφαιρετικῶν Τάσεων τῆς Βυζαντινῆς Ζωγραφικῆς (Ἐκδόσεις Ἁρμός, 2007), 76.
9 Γιάννης Ζιώγας, Ο Βυζαντινός Μάλεβιτς (Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Στάχυ, 2000). Andrew Spira, The Avant Garde Icon: Russian avant-garde art and the icon painting tradition (Lund Humphries, 2008).
Uros T. Τodorovic, “The Diachronic Character of Late Byzantine Painting: The Hermeneutics of Vision from Mistra to New York” (PhD diss., University of Sydney, 2012).
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