Page 221 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes

Chapter IV
ing from the Byzantine experience, for throughout the history of Byzantine painting we encounter a frequent revival of the classical and of the ancient. In this particular sense, El Greco’s painting can be understood as the only Renaissance and yet truly ecumenical Christian art, as due to its pronounced Byzantine element the Egyptian parallel is not entirely lost and the sense of unbroken historical continuity is therefore preserved. We are pictorially informed of the above addressed phenomena through Kandinsky’s work Division –Unity (image 43). It is our view that through a visual language, this work ex- emplifies the inter-historical connection between major Eastern artistic traditions, with strong emphasis on the aesthetics of Byzantine and Egyptian art. Abstraction was in this sense the means through which Kandinsky achieved an enigmatic-kind of insight into the connection between the arts of different periods.
Experimentations are particularly significant for understanding Kandinsky’s work. In this context, we have placed Kandinsky’s work entitled White Figure (image 46) next to a photograph showing a segment of the interior of the 9th century Byzantine church of Panagia Scripou at Orchomenos in Boeotia, in Greece (image 47). In this photograph we observe how the light from a window falls on a fresco which depicts saintly figures. The effect in this photograph notably corresponds to the enigmatic effect of Kandinsky’s White Figure (image 46). Similarly to the impression created by a combination of various abstract features observed in White Figure, in the presented photograph, it is apparent that neither the fresco nor the strange light coming from the window can produce alone the characteristic impression which they produce when they are combined. Were obser- vations of this kind part of Kandinsky’s spiritual experience?
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In conclusion, based on our research, it can be said that the observed Late Byzantine element in Kandinsky’s work reflects his appreciation of the truthfulness and of the nu- minous meaning which can be shared through art – aspects which are characteristic not only of Byzantine, but also of Egyptian, Oriental, and Primitive art.
Furthermore, Kandinsky’s Russian Orthodox heritage and his inspiration from Late Byzantine painting, have significantly contributed to the forming of his abstract style of painting. More importantly, as demonstrated through our case-studies, within that ab- straction the phenomena which he collectively branded with the term “spiritual,” find their most specific historical counterpart precisely in the transcendental content which is expressed through the tendency towards abstraction in Late Byzantine painting.
Finally, Kandinsky’s case informs us of an important, and in the domain of art theory hitherto insufficiently demonstrated fact: The crucial developments in art history of the
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