Page 337 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes

Chapter VI
As demonstrated in the above diptych, when we extract the figure of St John Climacus from the 13th century Russian icon shown on the previous page and also exclude the oth- er two saintly figures (St George and St Blaise), and place the figure of St John Climacus within the quadrilateral feature located in the centre of Rothko’s abstract composition, on the one hand, the Russian icon turns into a Rothko-like composition (left), while on the other, Rothko’s work becomes a Russian icon (the image on the right of the above diptych). Our view is that it is not a coincidence that the particular earthy palette used for the figure of St John Climacus is in absolute harmony with the palette used in Roth- ko’s work. In view of this paradigm, one cannot help pondering whether there is a hid- den extent of the influence that Russian iconography in particular had on Rothko’s clas- sic style.
Demonstration 4
23. Left: this image shows how a 13th century Russian icon of St John Climacus appears when all anthropomorphic representations are excluded and replaced with the colour of the background.
24. Right: this image shows the figure of St John Climacus
(which was taken from its original Byzantine icon composition shown on the left of demonstration number 3) added to an abstract composition painted by Rothko.
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