Page 33 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes

From El Greco to his Byzantine Predecessors
Through the unique style of the later phase of his painting, Domenikos Theotokopoulos, better known as El Greco, discreetly preserves the spiritual experience of the Post Byz- antine tradition within which he initially matured as an artist, while simultaneously inventing his own distinct and highly original kind of Renaissance painting. At the same time, through his work he is also distinctly heralding the aesthetic values of abstract and expressionist painting, which were to emerge in the 20th century.
When artists and art historians engage in a discussion about Byzantine art or about El Greco, the truism which is often heard is that El Greco is the last of the Byzantine painters.1 Although it has long become a cliché, this statement is not entirely true. Nev- ertheless, when predominately aesthetic, rather than strictly historical parameters are applied, such an assertion acquires a new meaning, as it tempts us to anachronistically approach El Greco’s later work as a starting point rather than as a final point of an en- quiry into the significance of Byzantine painting. It also incites us to trace the aesthetic connections between El Greco’s later work and the painting of all preceding periods of the Byzantine tradition. In doing so, it is necessary that we seek not only the explicitly formal connections, as this has already been realised,2 but more so those of an expressive kind, or in other words, those that give the mystagogical kind of life to El Greco’s later work. Thus, in respect to our present consideration of El Greco’s painting we are not interested in stating the obvious. We are not interested in arguing that after moving to Venice, through his very personal style, El Greco painted as a Renaissance painter but also remained under a certain influence of the Cretan tradition of Byzantine painting. Given the vast bibliography on El Greco’s work, such an argumentation could hardly constitute a contribution to the field.
1 For example, David Talbot-Rice concludes his book entitled Byzantine Painting: The Last Phase by saying the fol- lowing: “All were Greco’s forerunners and in this respect, if in no other, in the spiritual, unworldly, yet wholly human character of his art, Greco may still be considered the last of the Byzantines.” See: David Talbot-Rice, Byzantine Painting: The Last Phase (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1968), 192.
2 We shall discuss the relevant literature below.
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