Page 259 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes

Chapter V
sinuated (abstracted) movement. Later in this chapter we shall observe how this para- doxical unison of motion and stillness finds its highest point of expression in the white phase of Malevich’s Suprematism.
Even in his works which precede the Suprematist phase, such as Woman with Pails: Dy- namic Arrangement (image 7), Malevich’s rendering of movement is different from that of the Cubists. More particularly, although through their attempt to depict the whole- ness of objects they in part also turned to certain aspects of Byzantine aesthetics, the Cubists’ particular interest in the phenomenon of movement was focused on its external manifestation and not on any metaphysics behind its phenomenality in nature. On the other hand, in regards to the notion of movement there is a significant commonality between Late Byzantine and Malevich’s painting: in both cases the deceivingly simplis- tic depiction of movement is conveyed paradoxically through a repetition of rather stat- ic features, expressing therein a monumental and profound inner content, a content which is “concealed” behind the painted surface.
Accordingly, if one compares the detail of the 13th century fresco from Sopoćani shown in image 6, to Malevich’s work entitled Woman with Pails: Dynamic Arrangement (image 7), the first impression is that in both cases the harmonious arrangement of forms main- ly serves as a visual guide to the narrative theme, whereas in actual fact the narrative theme itself is in both cases subdued to the observer’s contemplation of that harmony.
Further, the emphasis on the cylindrical effect of form in Woman with Pails: Dynamic Arrangement owes to a Cubist influence, whereas in the aforementioned detail of the 13th century fresco from Sopoćani, the cylindrical effect owes to an inspiration from Greek Classical sculpture and more generally from Hellenistic art, as we have discussed previ- ously in this work. Thus, at the level of inter-textuality, through the cylindrical effect, both of these examples relate to a Cubist style of painting. Based on our comparative analyses and in view of Malevich’s works which precede his Suprematist phase, such as The Triumph of Heaven /study for a fresco (1907, image 1), Morning after the Storm (1912– 13, image 5), Woman with Pails: Dynamic Arrangement (1912, image 7) and The Knife Grinder: Principle of Flickering (1912–13, image 4), it can be concluded that Malevich’s predilection for geometry and a tendency to convey balance through the depiction of motion are very close to the basic aesthetic principles of Late Byzantine painting.
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