Page 350 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes

Byzantine Painting through Contemporary Eyes
It is not a coincidence that the two of Rothko’s works included in the above visual demonstration are oils on paper, mounted on linen. Rothko nurtured a liking of the qual- ities of texture, and of the refinement of the application of distinct colour layers, and this might well partly owe to his interest in Byzantine manuscripts and icons alike. In the two untitled works presented here (top right and bottom left), the bright yellow and the Byzantine-like blue stand as analogous to the gold and blue in two of the adjacent Byz- antine manuscripts (top left and bottom right). In spite of its depiction of figures, the theme of the Transfiguration of the 14th century Byzantine manuscript shown on the bottom right, presents a particularly abstract vision of the uncreated light with which Christ shone at the point of his Transfiguration. In view of the above presented compar- ison, Rothko’s subsequent turn to somber colours can be understood as a significant spiritual point of his personal transfiguration, one which is not to be identified with negativism but with theological profundity.
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