Page 210 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes

Byzantine Painting through Contemporary Eyes
canvas surfaces appear as musical compositions, which mysteriously speak of the hid- den connection between all arts and epochs. For example, Composition V (image 19) painted in 1911 is even reminiscent of prehistoric cave-painting. This work in many re- spects represents the first objectification of the “spiritual” in Kandinsky’s painting.
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Introduction to Case-Studies
We note that there is an insufficiency in respect to literature commenting on Kandin- sky’s Byzantine influences, as this discussion merely refers to explicitly Russian icons and frescoes. For example, Roethel states: “...there can be no doubt that his religious paintings such as Composition VI and Composition VII (images 22 and 23) are deeply root- ed in the iconography of the Russian Orthodox church. In addition to using some figu- rative motifs from frescoes in Moscow in his paintings of 1913, the timeless and spaceless qualities of the Russian icons undoubtedly formed an undeniable heritage for him.”29 However, in the same book Roethel acknowledged that: “In fact, a great number of Kan- dinsky’s paintings have not yet been interpreted satisfactorily.”30
Thus, what is also missing in the existing bibliography is the methodological expla- nation of why, and of how in particular, the previously mentioned “timeless” and “space- less” qualities of the Russian icons, as well as of the examples of Late Byzantine painting outside Russia, relate to Kandinsky’s abstraction. Another, relatively more recent publi- cation of immediate relevance, is the insightful book entitled Kandinsky and old Russia: The Artist as Ethnographer and Shaman, written by Peg Weiss. Weiss discusses how Kan- dinsky’s ethnographical enquiry into his Russian heritage influenced the entire course of his artistic career. Still, in Weiss’ book there is no in-depth enquiry into the influence of Late Byzantine painting on Kandinsky’s work. Neither is there an enquiry into his likely inspiration from those examples of Late Byzantine art that he may have encoun- tered during his 1931 travels to Egypt, Turkey, Greece and Italy. However, as our last two case-studies in this chapter shall demonstrate, it is not without consequence that Weiss observes a Byzantine element in Kandinsky’s last works.31
29 Ibid., 10.
30 Ibid., 15.
31 In particular, Weiss states: “It is perhaps not too much to say that in the entire Byzantine-Scythian cast of his last
paintings, Kandinsky was thinking in mythological terms of time out of mind.” See: Peg Weiss, Kandinsky and Old Rus- sia: The Artist as Ethnographer and Shaman (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995), 208.
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