Page 23 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes

Introduction
man form that we find in the best examples of Byzantine tradition, throughout its long historical trajectory.
The progress was then observed in a number of other works which were published in subsequent decades, such as the book by Kostas Papaioannou (1925–1981) entitled Byzan- tine and Russian Painting (1965),9 a rather comprehensive work by Vojislav J. Djurić (1925–1996) entitled Byzantine Frescoes in Yugoslavia (1974),10 and a concise but thought- fully composed book by Thomas F. Mathews entitled The Art of Byzantium (1998). Of course, there are other significant authors and works that deserve their place among those mentioned, and they shall be addressed later in this book. However, what concerns us at this introductory stage is the fact that, on the one hand, the publications of the second half of the 20th century commit to comprehensively interpreting the aesthetic characteristics of Byzantine art, while on the other, these works, each one for different reasons, do not explain whether and why Byzantine art (particularly Byzantine paint- ing) should be appreciated as diachronic.
The noteworthy progress in the more recent literature is observed in J.B. Bullen’s interdisciplinary study entitled Byzantium Rediscovered (2003), which elaborates on the 19th and early 20th century manifestations of Byzantine aesthetics in Bavaria, Prussia, Austria, France, Britain and North America.11 Although Bullen’s discussion of the Byzan- tine influence in Gustav Klimt’s paintings is particularly insightful,12 Bullen’s study does not attempt a more comprehensive analysis of the issues which concern the hypothesis of the diachronic significance of Late Byzantine painting.
Another author relevant to our topic is an iconographer, George Kordis, whose nu- merous books and studies published in recent years (in Greek) collectively contribute to the understanding of various aspects of Byzantine painting. But in spite of the valuable aesthetic analyses included in them, these books do not insist on the diachronic charac- ter of Byzantine painting.13 Further still, in his book entitled The Character and the Reason of the Abstraction in Byzantine Painting, Kordis argues that there is no essential relation- ship between the tendency towards abstraction in Byzantine painting and the abstrac-
9 This first publication was in French.
10 This first publication was in Serbian.
11 See: J.B. Bullen, Byzantium Rediscovered (Phaidon Press, 2003).
12 Ibid., 49–53.
13 See for example the following publications: Γιώργος Κόρδης, Ὁ Χαρακτῆρας καὶ ὁ Λόγος τῶν Ἀφαιρετικῶν Τάσε-
ων τῆς Βυζαντινῆς Ζωγραφικῆς (Ἀθήνα: Ἐκδόσεις Ἁρμός, 2007). Γιώργος Κόρδης, Ἐν ῥυθμῷ: Τό ἦθος τῆς γραμμῆς στή βυζαντινή ζωγραφική (Ἀθήνα: Ἐκδόσεις Ἁρμός, 2000). Γιώργος Κόρδης, Αυγοτέμπερα με Υποζωγράφιση: Το χρώμα ως φως στη βυζαντινή ζωγραφική. Θεωρία και πρακτική (Ἀθήνα: Ἐκδόσεις Αρμός, 2009). Γιώργος Κόρδης, Ἡ χρωματικὴ δομὴ στὶς μορφὲς τοῦ Θεοφάνη τοῦ Κρητός. Μιὰ αἰσθητικὴ ἀνάγνωση (Ἀθήνα: Ἐκδόσεις Ἁρμός, 1998). Γιώργος Κόρδης, Ἱεροτύπως, Ἡ εἰκονολογία τοῦ ἱ. Φωτίου καὶ ἡ τέχνη τῆς μετεικονομαχικῆς περιόδου (Ἀθήνα: Ἐκδόσεις Ἁρμός, 2002).
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