Page 72 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes

Byzantine Painting through Contemporary Eyes
time also subtly evocative of realism. This carefully measured balance is one of the major characteristics of Theophanes’ painting. However, his achievement is not exhausted in, nor is it unique only because of this phenomenon, as the carefully measured blend of idealism and relative realism is a characteristic which is also rightfully ascribed to the Palaiologan style of painting.
One of the main differences, and in respect to form we could even say the most obvi- ous difference, of the compositions rendered in the Palaiologan era to Theophanes’ com- positions, is that the former adhere to an almost expressionistic depiction of body move- ment (images 39 and 41), while in Theophanes’ work the body movement is considerably less dynamic. This can be observed even in examples of the segregated depictions of standing figures where the movement is necessarily minimal: Image 64 shows the figure of The Righteous Noah painted by Manuil Panselinos in Protaton, while image 65 shows the same theme rendered by Theophanes the Cretan in Stavronikita. Admittedly, the movement of the particular figure rendered by Theophanes had to be more or less sub- dued necessarily due to the size of the wall on which it was painted but his other figures can also be used effectively in this comparison.
Unlike the painters of the Palaiologan period, Theophanes sought not to emphasise a narrative, rather, he emphasised the sanctity of the individual figures. But in spite of this observed difference, in The Great Lavra, Theophanes managed to preserve in each of the rendered scenes the most essential iconographic and aesthetic traditions of the previous periods. Thus, Chatzidakis insightfully observes that the real magnitude of Theophanes’ painting can be appreciated in view of the fact that he managed to work creatively with- in the (strict) norms of the preceding traditions.100 Theophanes’ frescoes in Great Lavra later served as a prototype for a series of the 16th and 17th century frescoes. Therefore, the actual beginning of the entirely formed and mature Cretan school of fresco painting oc- curred upon the completion of Theophanes’ work at Lavra.101
The comparatively less dynamic body movement in Theophanes’ figures reflects a spiritual reaction of the oppressed Byzantine world of the 16th century (image 63). It re- flects the desire to preserve, recapitulate and re-live the entire past of the Byzantine theological, aesthetic and civilisational experience. This can be observed in all three monasteries where Theophanes worked (St Nicholas Anapausas, the Great Lavra and Stavronikita).
100 Μανόλης Χατζηδάκης, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος Κρης: Κείμενα 1940–1994 (Μορφωτικό Ίδρυμα Εθνικής Τραπέ- ζης, 1995), 28.
101 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, «Βιβλιοπωλείο των βιβλιοφίλων», 2007), 188.
70