Page 323 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes

Chapter VI
11. Folio from the Beatus of Liebana Commentary on the Apocalypse, The Great Whore of Babylon, c.950, The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, m.644, fol.194v.
Russia and his later mature interest in Byzantine art, that have together significantly contributed to the forming of his classic style. In any case, whatever the precise propor- tion between the Medieval, Russian-Byzantine and Byzantine inspirations may be, we undoubtedly have substantial grounds to undertake an assessment of a deeper and less concerned with formalistic aspects parallel between Rothko’s abstraction of the classic period and the aesthetics of Late Byzantine painting.
Moreover, we should note here that the significance of individual formal elements in Rothko’s work has been quite studiously addressed in a publication by the National Gal- lery of Art (Washington) and Yale University Press.43 Therefore, through the visual demon- strations and analyses included in the second part of this chapter, and with respect of the formal elements being already addressed at considerable depth, our enquiry into the Late Byzantine aspects of Rothko’s work aspires to bring to light certain phenomena which have not been studiously addressed in the past.
We must mention here one of Rothko’s truly revealing claims. As noted by Gage, the objective of creating scarcely definable tones in depth by the layering of several paints,
43 Jeffrey Weiss, et al. Mark Rothko (Washington: National Gallery of Art, in association with New Haven and Lon- don: Yale University Press, 1998). This publication includes the following four essays: Rothko: Color as Subject by John Gage, Rothko’s Dark Paintings: Tragedy and Void by Barbara Novak and Brian O’ Doherty, Material and Immaterial Surface: The Paintings of Rothko by Carol Mancusi – Ungaro, and Rothko’s Unknown Space by Jeffrey Weiss.
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