{Byzantine Art [continued (5):] The 12th century Byzantine “Renaissance”}[21st February 1991]

[Redbook8:280][19910221:1142i]{Byzantine Art [continued (5):] The 12^th century Byzantine “Renaissance”}[21st February 1991]

19910221.1142

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‘... 12^th century “Renaissance”. As usual, the term seems acceptable only as a characterisation and recognition of a high quality execution of a mode ultimately deriving from Antiquity. The actual source of inspiration for the artist of Daphni seems to be relatively recent....’*

‘The highest achievement of this period is the fresco decoration of the church of S. Pantaleimon at Nerezi, near Skopje (Yugoslavia), which is dated by an inscription to 1164. The workshop,** commissioned by a member of the Comnene family, is marked by its interest in narrative. Such scenes as the Deposition of Christ and the Lamentation over the body of Christ*** succeed in conveying to the spectator a real impression of the emotions of the participants. This is achieved by both composition and the individual expressions of the figures. This 12th-century movement in art cannot be explained simply by postulating a direct study of surviving antique art. It may document both a social change in Byzantine religious experience and also the development of a greater artistic individualism. It is at any rate notable that in the 12^th century**** more Byzantine artists began to sign their work and to gain some social notoriety.’#

#*

*[– Encylopaedia of Visual Art 3:383]

**[sic]

***(See illus[tration] E[ncylopaedia of] V[isual] A[rt] 3:383)

****2048A~-J~

cf? 1100-900BCE (2048A~-J~) Protogeometric Period – Reworking of old forms and patterns with new precision and eye for proportion and design: beginnings of Greek classical art. The point is not the direct comparision with 12^th c[entury] Byzantine art but of the relationship of each of these periods with the major artistic phase of the 2048G~ff period following, ie Greek Classical art and the European Renaissance respectively.

#{cf IX: [] 143-4 (Islamic art, 16th-17th c[enturies]}

#*– ibid [Encylopaedia of Visual Art 3:] 383-4

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