Page 260 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes

Byzantine Painting through Contemporary Eyes
Case Study 3: Malevich’s final return to the Byzantine iconographical tradition as a retrospective iconological enquiry into theological dimensions of his own painting
In our consideration of Malevich’s artistic development, instead of proceeding chron- ologically, we shall here deliberately proceed by firstly noting one instance of Byzantine inspiration which occurred before the particularly distinct manifestations of the influ- ences of Fauvism, Cubism and Futurism occurred, and then we shell address Malevich’s Byzantine influences which were manifested after his completely abstract phase, known as Suprematism, has ended (after the year of 1926). This will be conducted in order to pro- pose that the in-between period of Suprematism, which will be discussed separately in the subsequent case-study, entails a concealed continuation of Malevich’s enquiry into the post-physical and mystagogical properties of the aesthetics of Late Byzantine painting.
In view of the examples of his early figurative works, Malevich’s borrowing from the aesthetics of Byzantine painting entailed more than just compositional and structural aspects. Thus, Yannis Ziogas compares Malevich’s Self Portrait (1908–09 or 1910–11) shown in image 8 to the late 11th century depiction of Christ in the dome of the church of Daph- ni, and states: “A comparison with depictions of Pantokrator (such as that at the Church of Daphni) provides us with the possibility to detect the same intensity in the gaze, the same drawing of the eyebrows and of the area underneath the eyes, the same schema- tised modeling of the nose, mouth and clothes. The gaze of the Pantokrator at Daphni and the gaze of Malevich’s self-portrait (1908–09) are especially related both from a for- mal and a notional point of view, as they give out the same sense of a distant austerity.”18
In addition, we note that the fact that half of Malevich’s Self Portrait shown in image 8 is of a distinct green colour while the other half is yellow as well as earthy red, might also entail a latent Byzantine influence, among other, more likely influences, such as the painting of Paul Gauguin. For example, image 9 shows a comparable colour treatment of the portrait of St John the Theologian rendered in Protaton by a painter known to us as “Manuel Panselinos.” In fact, this particular aspect of the colour treatment where, in one part of the portrait, earthy red nuances can be discerned, while the other part is distinct-
18 Γιάννης Ζιώγας, Ο Βυζαντινός Μάλεβιτς (Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Στάχυ, 2000), 46. (Our translation). «Μια σύγκριση με απεικονίσεις του Παντοκράτορα (όπως εκείνης της Μονής Δαφνίου) μας δίνει τη δυνατότητα να διακρίνουμε την ίδια ένταση στο βλέμμα, το ίδιο γράψιμο των φρυδιών και της περιοχής κάτω από τα μάτια, το ίδιο σχηματοποιημένο πλάσιμο της μύτης, των χειλιών και των ενδυμάτων. Ειδικά το βλέμμα τόσο του Παντοκράτορα του Δαφνίου όσο και της Αυτοπροσωπογραφίας (1908–09) του Μάλεβιτς είναι ταυτόσημα τόσο από φορμική όσο και από εννοιολογική άποψη αφού αναδίδουν την ίδια αίσθηση απόμακρης αυστηρότητας.»
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