Page 46 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes

Byzantine Painting through Contemporary Eyes
within its broader scope our book argues for precisely the opposite, especially in the last three chapters, where we adhere to the systematic analyses of the relevant visual material. In view of the earlier discussed eurhythmic “musicalisation” of the classical sculptur- al form (at Sopoćani), we might argue that the sculptural or three-dimensional rep- resentations of saints were not exactly forbidden per se in Byzantine art, but that they were actually transcended by a reality of a new, exalted kind of sculpture – one that has to do more with musical vibrations of light in space than with mere narrative depictions of the gospel events. This tendency towards abstraction and otherworldly treatment of light in Late Byzantine painting are phenomena which have been given far less attention than what they deserve, as scholars have concerned themselves much more with ques-
tions concerning the Western influences which occurred after 1204.
The truth of the matter is, however, that each time they occurred, the Western influ- ences were absorbed by the Byzantine painters into a style of painting which always remained (even in most examples of Post Byzantine painting) immediately recognisable as Byzantine. Thus, for example when we speak of levels of realism in various examples of Byzantine painting which date before the fall of Constantinople, we should not auto- matically identify that phenomenon with the influence of the Western artistic tradition. Together with Western influences in Byzantine painting there is the far older, embedded influence from the Fayum burial portraits which, as we already mentioned, are the aes- thetic predecessors of the Byzantine icon, and which are indeed generally quite close to
realism – see image 5.
There is, in Byzantine painting, a realism which can be understood and termed as the-
ological realism – rather than naturalistic realism which is concerned with precise anat- omy and faithful naturalistic depictions of the human form. This theological kind of re- alism which does not aim to depict the human form naturalistically exists also in El Greco’s later work, a phenomenon which bespeaks El Greco’s enduring attachment to the most exalted characteristics of the Byzantine aesthetics, while he was of course al- ready well familiar with and well trained in the domain of realistic painting of the Re- naissance style.
To summarise, the linear quality of the frescoes of the Komnenian style (such as the composition of Lamentation at Nerezi) and the persistence of the classical form in the
content.” Our translation of: «Ἡ παρατηρούμενη ἀφαιρετική διάθεση δὲ φαίνεται νὰ έχει σχέση μὲ ἀνάλογες τάσεις τῆς μοντέρνας ζωγραφικῆς, ὅπου ἡ φθορὰ τῆς φυσικῆς μορφῆς ὑπηρετεῖ, κατὰ κανόνα, ἐξπρεσσιονιστικές ἀναζητήσεις καὶ ἐκφράζει κάποιο ἐπέκεινα τῆς μορφῆς πνευματικό, ἰδεολογικό ἢ συναισθηματικὸ περιεχόμενο.» For the original text see: Γιώργος Κόρδης, Ὁ Χαρακτῆρας καὶ ὁ Λόγος τῶν Ἀφαιρετικῶν Τάσεων τῆς Βυζαντινῆς Ζωγραφικῆς (Ἀθήνα: Ἐκδόσεις Ἁρμός, 2007), 76.
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