Page 73 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes

Chapter I
In this particular sense, we could say that the dynamic movement (and stances) of the human figure depicted in the Palaiologan painting, where clothes are sometimes ren- dered in free motion as if carried by wind, is comparable to a spontaneous, freehand calligraphic-kind of writing, whereas the movement depicted by Theophanes could be understood as a conventionalisation but also a renewal of the style of that writing. How- ever, this comparison is only intended to clarify the main difference between the two periods in respect to the rendering of movement – and it does not imply that similarities could not be equally and at points even more clearly observed.
In the refectory of The Great Lavra, Theophanes left very overt evidence of a pro- found level of creativity. We are referring to the scene of The Second Coming (also named The Last Judgment), which is probably painted by Theophanes’ students – but Theoph- anes was in charge of the entire project, which was undoubtedly closely supervised. As shown in images 66 and 67, in the scene of The Second Coming, Theophanes exploited the considerable size of the walls in order to render truly apocalyptic scenes which follow wide and dream-like currents of a synchronized and unified movement. On the left, the processions of saints and martyrs depicted within clouds radiate with otherworldly weightlessness (image 66), while on the right, the river of fire which springs from be- neath Christ’s throne incorporates effective depictions of the tormented (image 67). The flow of the massive river of fire enters the jaws of the beast which represents Hades, and the observer becomes consumed by the overall drama at hand. Other details are equally impressive.
But it is not an enigma that Theophanes was ready to make such a drastic step towards a notably freer depiction of a theme such as The Second Coming, for he initially rendered this theme at the Monastery of St Nicholas Anapausas. Images 61 and 62 show this first depiction of The Second Coming painted by Theophanes, where he already demonstrates a clear tendency to emphasise the massive flow of the river of fire and organise certain other segments of the last judgment in a manner which pertains to abstraction.
Both in St Nicholas Anapausas and in the refectory at Great Lavra the heightened level of abstraction in the theme of The Second Coming is a result of an eschatological visionary experience, one which in our view is dialectically linked with the earlier men- tioned desire to preserve, recapitulate and re-live the entire past of the Byzantine expe- rience. Of course, the motifs which comprise Theophanes’ renderings of this theme are inspired by the Palaiologan tradition, and can be observed in the church of Chora in
71