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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55208#0031
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- Frühchristliche und byzantinische Kunst
22 THE DEESIS PANEL OF THE SOUTH GALLERY
building created, in life’s time, the manifestation which started the gaze on a
new course of action.
In the modelling of the faces the painter of the Deesis worked in two different
technical procedures already in use in Haghia Sophia. The faces of Christ and of
the Theotokos are illuminated by an infinite variety of short strokes [19] similar
to those in the portrait of young Alexios (3rd Report, Pl. XXXIV), the
modelling of which is attained in numerous white high-lights moving in
parallels (Pls. XVIII & XXIV). The drawing of the head of St. John is closer
to the portraits of Constantine and Justinian in the South-West Vestibule
(2nd Report, Pls. XII & XIII) which render the muscles beneath the skin and
the bones beneath the muscles in long sinuous rows of tessellae (Pl. XXVIII),
although the parallelism of the rows is less narrowly observed in the Deesis
than in the tenth century figures.
The use of these diverse methods in the same panel declares the breadth and
multiformity of the skill of the painter who with equal authority commanded
different techniques elaborated in Byzantine craftsmanship. If the greatest
Byzantine painting is not in the Deesis, it is because the Deesis is in large
measure intellectual from the fact that it is not painted in scale but in colours
about which we form judgement.
The technique of the painter of the Deesis bears the dominating influence of
the brush. The use of an elaborate interplaiting of usual tessellae with splintered
cubes for the points of the strokes reconstructs here in some degree the methods
characterizing the all but vanished painting in tempera which once adorned the
walls of so many Byzantine churches [20]. Uncommonly small cubes (their
average size being from 1 cm. x o-8 cm. to 0-5 cm. x 0-4 cm., whereas the average
size of the cubes of the crosses in the Narthex is 0-09 cm. x 0-08 cm.) when seen
from the distance from which the mosaic reaches action merge into one another
so that the mosaic appears more like the work of a brush albeit more powerful
than any brush can paint. The use of mosaic and tempera together is the more
intimate that here and there, as we have seen on the shoulder of Christ and in the
beard of St. John, some spaces of plaster of an average of 1 cm. x 4 cm. were
not covered with tessellae but simply coloured in the tones of surrounding
cubes. This fusion of two competitive media characterizes and accentuates the
intention of the artist who, holding firmly to the processes of the mosaicist, knew
how to vary and to render his work, as he thought, more supple by the con-
tribution of the painter.
building created, in life’s time, the manifestation which started the gaze on a
new course of action.
In the modelling of the faces the painter of the Deesis worked in two different
technical procedures already in use in Haghia Sophia. The faces of Christ and of
the Theotokos are illuminated by an infinite variety of short strokes [19] similar
to those in the portrait of young Alexios (3rd Report, Pl. XXXIV), the
modelling of which is attained in numerous white high-lights moving in
parallels (Pls. XVIII & XXIV). The drawing of the head of St. John is closer
to the portraits of Constantine and Justinian in the South-West Vestibule
(2nd Report, Pls. XII & XIII) which render the muscles beneath the skin and
the bones beneath the muscles in long sinuous rows of tessellae (Pl. XXVIII),
although the parallelism of the rows is less narrowly observed in the Deesis
than in the tenth century figures.
The use of these diverse methods in the same panel declares the breadth and
multiformity of the skill of the painter who with equal authority commanded
different techniques elaborated in Byzantine craftsmanship. If the greatest
Byzantine painting is not in the Deesis, it is because the Deesis is in large
measure intellectual from the fact that it is not painted in scale but in colours
about which we form judgement.
The technique of the painter of the Deesis bears the dominating influence of
the brush. The use of an elaborate interplaiting of usual tessellae with splintered
cubes for the points of the strokes reconstructs here in some degree the methods
characterizing the all but vanished painting in tempera which once adorned the
walls of so many Byzantine churches [20]. Uncommonly small cubes (their
average size being from 1 cm. x o-8 cm. to 0-5 cm. x 0-4 cm., whereas the average
size of the cubes of the crosses in the Narthex is 0-09 cm. x 0-08 cm.) when seen
from the distance from which the mosaic reaches action merge into one another
so that the mosaic appears more like the work of a brush albeit more powerful
than any brush can paint. The use of mosaic and tempera together is the more
intimate that here and there, as we have seen on the shoulder of Christ and in the
beard of St. John, some spaces of plaster of an average of 1 cm. x 4 cm. were
not covered with tessellae but simply coloured in the tones of surrounding
cubes. This fusion of two competitive media characterizes and accentuates the
intention of the artist who, holding firmly to the processes of the mosaicist, knew
how to vary and to render his work, as he thought, more supple by the con-
tribution of the painter.