Page 216 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes

Byzantine Painting through Contemporary Eyes
rather explicit beliefs in regards to the relationship between the aspect of abstraction in Byzantine painting and the abstraction in 20th century Modern painting. For example, he states in the conclusion: “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.”36
In our view, conclusions such as the one cited above should by no means be accepted without methodological re-examination. It requires no reminding that Kandinsky’s close relationship with the heritage of Byzantine art is historically undisputable. Moreover, in the introduction of the previously mentioned book, Kordis himself makes a reference to Kandinsky’s frequently repeated claim that the profound impression which the Russian medieval icons evoked in him had influenced his entire artistic development.37
As already demonstrated in the previous two chapters, in relation to prime examples of Late Byzantine painting: If one’s perception is not captive solely by the formal aspects and the narrative character of a Late Byzantine composition, its otherworldly aura, which stems from the distinct tendency towards abstraction, excels to a level of hyper- textual meaning, and as such, becomes the more exalted, and often also a theological content of the depicted theme.
A typical example of this phenomenon is the composition of The Second Coming (im- ages 35 and 36) at the chapel of the church of Chora in Constantinople, where the weight- lessness, the sublime simplicity of the composition, the non-naturalistic rendering of form, and the non-naturalistic colour-palette, are aspects which, when considered as a whole, project mystagogical levels of meaning – ones which exceed the formal purpose of the depicted narrative. This means that the viewer can contemplate and participate in the transcendental reality of the event of The Second Coming: by participating in its mys- tagogical mood. This is a participation which at its highest levels amounts to a purely abstract experience. The comparison between Kandinsky’s painting Composition X (im- age 34), which was completed just before the outbreak of the Second World War, and the Byzantine scene of The Second Coming (image 35), reveals a similarity in respect to both weightlessness and the rhythmical arrangement of forms – which at first glance are in
36 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 Βυζα- ντινῆς Ζωγραφικῆς (Ἐκδόσεις Ἁρμός, 2007), 76.
37 Ibid., 8.
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