The Vividness of Byzantine Art

This week I choose to look at the Late Byzantine because we’re beginning to see the subtle incorporation of classical illusionism. For example in Andrei Rublyev’s Three Angels, we see “subtle line in union with intensely vivid color.” While the Mosaics of Early and Middle Byzantium employed color, nothing compares to the Three Angeles vividness. Here “color defines the forms”. There are complementary colors adjacent to one another and intense blue and green are used to define folds of the robes and cloaks. He even employed an opalescent blue green…something we’ve not seen in any of the earlier Byzantine works. The figures heads are 3/4 view, another departure from Early and Middle Byzantium full frontal poses.

Even more exciting is the feeling of energy and movement of the Late Byzantine work. In the Annunciation, reverse of two sided icon from Saint Clement, we see gestures and implied action and more three-dimensional forms. It’s almost as if the flatness and abstractness of early Byzantium has been made outdated. Here we get a peek of architectural elements, albeit highly simplified and with an inconsistent perspective, yet hints at the classical Renaissance that is to come.

Still the images continue with Byzantine eclecticism including the solemn facial expressions and halos/nimbus, floating figures in space, and ethereal golden backgrounds.

During this time period, while still religious in nature, the art is migrating from broadcasting theocratic messages, to solely spiritual messages.

Here are few links for our discussions:

http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521545919

http://www.schmemann.org/byhim/byzantiumiconoclasm.html

http://tars.rollins.edu/Foreign_Lang/Russian/rublev.html