Page 36 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes

Byzantine Painting through Contemporary Eyes
El Greco’s Forerunners of the 11th, 12th and 13th Century
The Komnenian style of fresco painting has been an object of interest among 20th centu- ry scholars. Its finest and most characteristic examples are found in the churches of Sts Anargyroi at Kastoria in Greece (1180), St Panteleimon at Nerezi (1164), St George in Kurbinovo (1191), both in present day FYROM, and the church of Panagia tou Arakou near Lagoudera in Cyprus (1192). The frescoes at the church of St George in Kurbinovo constitute the new but also the final phase in the development of the Komnenian style.11 Our first comparison is between El Greco’s work entitled Visitation (c.1607–1614) and a late 12th century fresco at Kurbinovo, depicting The Meeting of Mary and Elizabeth. The analogies are very obvious in view of the position of the bodies but also in view of the overall arrangement of the composition. The reciprocal and clearly schematic entangle- ment of the hands between the two figures in the scene at Kurbinovo (image 1) can be understood as reinvented by El Greco in Visitation – where each figure places its one palm on the shoulder of the other figure (image 2). In El Greco’s Visitation the contours of the drapery which divide the figures (in the middle) have a multiple role, as they seem to simultaneously bring the figures together into a spontaneous kind of unity – reminis- cent of the effect of lightning.12 In the scene at Kurbinovo, the unity is emphasised through the strict symmetry of movement between the two figures and through the drawing which leaves no doubt that the movement of the one figure is mirrored (with almost mathematical precision) in the other.
It is noteworthy that despite the seeming inflexibility of form the two figures at Kurbi- novo are not touching the ground with their feet but are suspended in air. In El Greco’s Visitation the figures are not suspended in air, but despite that, the effect of weightless- ness is achieved through the dynamic rendering of the masses of drapery – which remind more of ‘dancing flames’ than of clothing. In the scene at Kurbinovo, the architectural features in the background serve as a setting for the symmetrical arrangement of the composition; thus the two figures are centralised by the architectural features depicted on the left and right. In El Greco’s Visitation, the figure on the left comes out of a door- way to greet the other figure, while there are no architectural features on the right. However, the composition of Visitation is depicted within a drawn circle, which empha- sises the symmetry and can be understood as a halo of its own kind.
11 Vojislav Djurić, Vizantijske Freske u Jugoslaviji. Drugo izdanje (Beograd: Jugoslavija, 1975), 14.
12 Marina Lambraki-Plaka observed this “lightning” effect in El Greco’s painting: “White flashes strike from the ‘metallic’ folds as if they were lightning.” See: Marina Lambraki-Plaka, El Greco: o Έλληνας / the Greek (Kastaniotis Editions, 1999), 52.
34