A műemlékek sokszínűsége (A 28. Egri Nyári Egyetem előadásai 1998 Eger, 1998)

Előadások / Presentations - Georgiosz PROKOPIU: The polychromy in byzantine art church decoration, origin, form and technique

DECORATION Byzantine architecture treated mass in order to create extensive surfaces, free of architectural projections articulations (stressing the action of the forces at certain points), as was the case with Roman architecture. In other words, in order to suggest that mass was dematerialised, the Byzantine artist made smooth or pierced surfaces (interrupted only by decorative bands). The cladding therefore was effected not by added plastic masses, but with flat slabs of marble and plastered surfaces suitable for mosaics or frescoes. A new conception in decoration, thus, came into being: the aesthetic expression of surface, the simplest example of which is Byzantine wall panelling. The polychrome marble slabs are so combined that their veins produce fantastic patterns, and when light glides on their shining surface, the phantasmagoric illusion it creates, contributes to the dematerialisation of mass and its apparent loss of weight. Sculptural decoration, in conforming to this aesthetic expression of surface, extended in flat, two-dimensional design and was therefore either in flat relief (au champleve) or pierced (a jour). These finely wrought „embroideries", extending along the surfaces of Byzantine churches, produced two definite aesthetic results: firstly, by introducing the diminutive element, they help to magnify aesthetically the interior space; secondly, with their delicately spun but rigid lace or network, that lures the eye to continuous movement, they help to dematerialise mass; in concealing its volume they efface the visible weight of matter, wrote the late prof. P. Michelis. Byzantine decoration, then, follows the principle of Byzantine architecture in subduing the parts to the whole, and is, like it, not tectonic but pictorial. After the early Christian period, the decorative tendency of Byzantine architecture manifested itself also on the external walls of the churches. Marble slabs in relief were inserted, as in the Church of Gorgoepikoos, or slabs in flat relief, as in the dome of the Hosios Lukas chapel. However, in the main, it was the inferior material of the walls themselves which was decorativcly arranged, now into brick-surrounded masonry, now in interesting combinations of bricks with sometimes ceramic ornaments, friezes of Kufic lettering. In this way not only was a new minute measure of comparison provided, which displayed the size of the church, but the church was also given a „pictorial" character and natural polychromy. The factors they introduced were not merely harmonious complements to the exterior view of the chruch: they were artistically indispensable in an architecture, which unfolds surfaces and has the minimum number of projections. We meet a similar decorative tendency again in the external walls of Romanesque architecture, where, however, it begins to be combined with sulptural decoration, as this finally prevailed in the Gothic chruch. The polychromy of the two-dimensional decoration of the chruch's facades, both in Byzantine and Romanesque style, was natural, not painted. Unlike the Greek temple, in which the material of which it was built was painted, the Byzantine church preserved the natural colours of its material. On the whole, the same principle was applied in the interior decoration of marble veneer and mosaic, employed to achieve polychromy. Frescoes were not introduced till later. THE POLYCHROMY OF THE INTERIOR DECORATION The interior decoration in Byzantine churches would no doubt have been imperfect were polychromy lacking. For polychromy adds warmth to light, contributes to the creation of atmosphere and introduces a fantastic element into the cold majesty of the church. Painting, (mosaic or fresco), with their animated representations, recall life and motion in space. Chromatic harmony softens the awe-inspiring glance of the Almighty, the chaste beauty of the Virgin Mary, the dematerialised faces of the Saints and Martyrs. In lending