Page 53 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes

Chapter I
creator who in his painting, besides other achievements, exceeds his own self – some- thing that again can rightly be said about El Greco. Thus, in the following paragraphs, we shall examine more closely the relationship between the tendency towards abstrac- tion and the theological meaning in Panselinos’ work.
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An in situ assessment of the frescoes at Protaton – including those in the upper reg- isters is extremely revealing. This assessment was possible due to the scaffolding which in 2007 was in place inside the church (images 30 and 31). In the following paragraphs we shall discuss certain compositions from the upper registers at Protaton, starting with the composition of St John the Theologian and St Prohoros (image 33). The symmetry here is emphasised by means of a simple arrangement of the two seated figures on each side of the composition. St John the Theologian is seated on the left while St Prohoros is seat- ed on the right, and their positions seem to almost mirror one another.
Τhe turning gesture of St John’s head towards the observer indicates that St John’s enlightenment, conveyed as a ray of light shining upon him from the upper left corner of the composition, is to be shared through the contemplation of the words which come through him. With a calm gesture of his left hand he instructs his student, St Prohoros, to write these words on paper. In response, St Prohoros bows his head to the task and is presented to be writing the beginning of the sentence which reads: “Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ Λόγος...” – which means: “In the beginning was the Word...” If we pay closer attention to St Pro- horos’ writing, we notice that his right hand is depicted to be writing the second-last letter (omicron) of the word Logos (Λόγος).
As seen in image 32, guided by the mystic motion of the landscape whose contours tilt from left to right, we notice firstly the uncreated light in the upper left corner, then the responsive gesture of the enlightened St John, and then St Prohoros, who is writing the second-last letter of the word Logos. Seeing that the word Logos is yet to be complet- ed by St Prohoros (with its last letter ς), we can conclude that Panselinos creatively as- signs the completion of this scene to the observer. In fact, just like in other examples of Byzantine painting, all of Panselinos’ compositions are rendered in such a way, that they do not simply presuppose the participation of the observer, but their structure is by rule organised strictly in relation to the observer. Thus, as seen in image 33, in the composi- tion of St John the Theologian and St Prohoros, the central place of the observer, as an imagined third figure of the theme, is insinuated by the arrangement and position of the two depicted figures. In the scenes of Baptism and Resurrection at Protaton, this reference
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