Byzantine and Christian Museum of Athens: Temporary exhibition:Domenikos Theotokopoulos before El Greco The beheading of Saint John the Baptist, by Michael Damaskenos. Loaned by the Municipal Gallery of Corfu. Part of the exhibition about other Greek artists, contemporary to Domenikos Theotokopoulos, who worked abroad, mixed styles and adopted western elements. A very influential painting at its time, The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist represents one of the best examples of Byzantine tradition merging with the western style. Michael Damaskenos used primarily the western style for small details. Allowing each tradition its own area in the artwork he created scenes that are both restrained and dramatic. The pathos of the front scene is rendered in fluent plasticity characteristic of the western style, while the figures still maintain the modest reserve of Byzantine tradition. Two times exist within the same painting. The back scene depicts the banquet in which the head of St.John will be presented, Salome and her entourage ascending the stairs towards the terrace. Salome is looking back at her own past self at the front of the picture. A complicated gesture ladden with meaning. While Salome at the front has averted her eyes, Salome at the back is turned in a way that makes her a witness to the execution. The platter she is holding is empty in both scenes. A soldier has picked up the Baptist’s head as if to relieve her of the weight. As if the beheading had never really been her doing as long as there were men in her world who would willingly carry it out. Salome as a witness and a spectator reflects our gaze. Are we meant to sympathisize with her? Are we to understand that she herself was but an empty vessel, to be filled with the purpose of history, or that of a divine plan? Had the icon been strictly rendered in the Byzantine style, such questions would be meaningless. Yet it is the byzantine tradition that allows past, present and future to be realized in the same painting, providing us with the “whole picture”. If it hadn’t been for the humanistic ideals of the european Renaissance, however, Salome wouldn’t have to look back. And in a way neither would we.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 08:59:38 +0000
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