Page 64 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes

Byzantine Painting through Contemporary Eyes
The style of Theophanes’ painting had a strong influence on the local painters of Novgo- rod, but also on other Russian painters who worked elsewhere and on those who worked in the following periods.57 Theophanes’ name and artistic achievement are also closely associated with his most talented student, Andrei Rublev, with whom he worked togeth- er in the Church of the Annunciation in Kremlin.58 Rublev eventually became regarded as the most important Russian iconographer and his work exercised a decisive influence on the following generations of artists not only in Russia but also in the Balkans.
Post Byzantine Painting and Theophanes the Cretan
Notwithstanding the rich history and a number of known names of painters of the Post Byzantine period (mid 15th – early 17h century), as well as the many geographical loca- tions of the preserved examples of frescoes and icons, we shall here firstly outline only the basic aspects of the history of Post Byzantine painting. In the second part of this text, we shall then focus on the achievement of Theophanes the Cretan and the Cretan school of painting. Thus, our main aim here is to explain the significance of Theophanes’ paint- ing, and therein also to aesthetically interpret the previously undermined meaning that his work acquires when considered as a Byzantine pre-El Greco achievement.
We shall first synoptically address some of the main facts concerning the history of research which has hitherto been undertaken in the field of Post Byzantine painting. The interest in this field occurred as early as the end of the 19th century, and, as Miltos Garid- is states, in some cases much earlier.59 The research of Post Byzantine Painting (and Byz- antine painting) was initially begun mainly by Russian scholars, but in the same period it also commenced in France (G. Millet), Germany, Austria and other European coun- tries.60 However, this initial research focused mainly on historical aspects, on the devel- opment of certain iconographical themes, and on foreign influences. In short, the schol- ars of the late 19th and a majority of those of the early 20th century did not undertake an in-depth enquiry into the aesthetics of Byzantine and Post Byzantine painting. Instead
57 In Novgorod, Theophanes was essentially a leader of the trend of painting, a trend with which the decoration of the two churches is connected: the Church of St Theodore Stratelates and the Church of the Dormition at the field of Volotovo (the latter was destroyed during the Second World War). See also: Viktor Lazarev, Old Russian Murals and Mosaics: From the XI to the XVI Century. trans. Boris Roniger (London: Phaidon Press, 1966), 154–155.
58 At the Church of the Annunciation, Theophanes worked with Andrei Rublev and Prokhor from Gorodets.
59 Μίλτος Γαρίδης, Μεταβυζαντινή Ζωγραφική (1450–1600). Η εντοίχια ζωγραφική μετά την πτώση του Βυζαντίου στον Ορθόδοξο κόσμο και στις χώρες υπό ξένη κυριαρχία. Μετάφραση: Αγγελική Γαρίδη (Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Κ. Σπανός, «Βιβλι- οπωλείο των βιβλιοφίλων», 2007), 27.
60 Ibid.
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