Page 217 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes

Chapter IV
both compositions observed as primarily abstract features. A similar observation could be made when the scene of The Second Coming is compared to Kandinsky’s work entitled Around the Circle (image 37).
Thus, our view is that, besides his other influences, his conscious quest for the “spiritual” in art had led Kandinsky to selectively borrow and reinvent not the actual style of Late Byzantine painting, but the transcendental worldview entailed in that painting. Many subsequent Modern and Postmodern painters failed to understand what truly lies be- neath the surface of the compositions painted by Kandinsky, and thus, as observed by Yannis Ziogas in his discussion about Malevich, such painters inherited only the surface and not the process.38
Whether or not during his 1931 travels Kandinsky indeed saw the frescoes at Chora or those at Mistra, is an academic question which remains open. There is however little doubt that during these travels Kandinsky would have sought the representative exam- ples of Byzantine painting. For example, perhaps he did not manage to visit the church of Chora in Constantinople but instead had visited the church of the Holy Apostles or the church of St Nicholas Orphanos (both are in Thessaloniki). Such a likelihood does not change the main point of our argument, as both in the church of the Holy Apostles (where significant mosaics are also preserved) and in St Nicholas Orphanos there are representative examples of Late Byzantine fresco painting where similar connections to Kandinsky’s work may be detected.
In his earlier mentioned book entitled The Character and the Reason of the Ab- straction in Byzantine Painting, Georgios Kordis argues that: “The abstraction in Byz- antine painting is mainly a functional enrichment of the visual form. Therefore, the de- parture from the natural form and the simplification of the hypostatical characteristics, do not occur in order for the theological meanings to be expressed, but aim at connect- ing the visual form – therefore the depicted person or event – with the observer.”39
In respect to the above cited view, our position is considerably different, which can be gathered from the previous chapters of this book. We argue that first and foremost, the deeper cause of the aspect of abstraction in Byzantine painting is the historically and culturally specific, transcendental worldview of its civilisation. Of course, the practical
38 See: Γιάννης Ζιώγας, Ο Βυζαντινός Μάλεβιτς (Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Στάχυ, 2000), 88.
39 Γιώργος Κόρδης, Ὁ Χαρακτῆρας καὶ ὁ Λόγος τῶν Ἀφαιρετικῶν Τάσεων τῆς Βυζαντινῆς Ζωγραφικῆς (Ἐκδόσεις Ἁρμός, 2007), 76–77. (Our translation). The cited text reads as follows in Greek: «Ἡ ἀφαίρεση στὴ βυζαντινὴ ζωγραφι- κὴ εἶναι κυρίως λειτουργικὸς ἐμπλουτισμὸς τῆς εἰκαστικῆς μορφῆς. Ἡ ἀπομάκρυνση, δηλαδή, ἀπὸ τὴ φυσικὴ μορφὴ καὶ ἡ ἁπλοποίηση τῶν ὑποστατικῶν χαρακτηριστικῶν, δὲν γίνεται προκειμένου νὰ ἐκφραστοῦν θεολογικὲς ἔννοιες, ἀλλά ἀποσκοπεῖ στὴ σύνδεση τῆς εἰκαστικῆς μορφῆς – καὶ ἄρα τοῦ εἰκονιζόμενου προσώπου ἢ γεγονότος – μὲ τὸ θεατή.»
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