Page 25 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes

Introduction
Mathew’s definition, as well as his related views, do not provide a thorough answer to a number of more particular questions, one of them being a question of: Why should Late Byzantine painting be regarded as diachronic? Accordingly, as we asserted earlier, the main purpose of our collective hermeneutics in this book is to make the diachronic significance of the aesthetics of Late Byzantine painting more observable than what it appears to be in the existing scholarly literature. To this end, we shall adhere to a num- ber of visual paradigms and visual demonstrations. More specifically, besides the obvi- ous historical approach, our methodology shall consist mainly of: (a.) analyses of the selected visual material, (b.) visual comparisons, and (c.) visual demonstrations. In our visual demonstrations we shall present the photographs of certain examples of both Byzantine and 20th century painting, over which we have actually intervened in order to make the theoretical argument visually comprehensible. Therefore, as a whole, the in- cluded visual material constitutes an inseparable part of the present book.
The detailed information regarding each selected image is included on each of the pages where that image appears. We note that for methodological reasons certain imag- es appear more than once. The numbering of images is separate in each chapter. Due to archival reasons, wherever the photograph of an example of Late Byzantine painting has been produced by the author of the present book, this is noted within the information which relates to that photograph. The actual order of the images throughout the book follows the logic which exists within the collective text, while at the same time this order is envisaged as a visual presentation in its own right. Thus, the reader can only benefit if before reading this book they examine the visual material in its given order.
In respect to the particular periods, with certain exceptions, we shall consider the influence of Byzantine painting, dating from the late 11th to the mid 15th century, on the work of the selected 20th century artists. Additionally, certain 16th century examples of Post Byzantine painting shall also be discussed, as these constitute an inseparable devel- opment of the Byzantine painting tradition of previous centuries. We note that Byzan- tine painting of the last phase is characteristic for its coherent and entirely elaborate system of constructing the composition, as well as for integrating the specific segments within its composition in a manner which is rhythmical, flawless and which at points, due to the narrative dimension, even has cinematographic and scenic qualities.
More particularly, with the commencement of the Palaiologan period (1261–1453) the traditionally employed red margin between fresco compositions is used far less often, and the figure of a depicted personage is often repeated within a single composition which comprises two or more related themes that follow one another in sequence – as seen in image 41 in our chapter on El Greco, showing: Deposition followed by Lamenta-
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