About the Byzantine Tarot and byzantine art
Posted: 05 Apr 2020, 09:21
Oh, I didn'nt know it's OOP. It's a great deck. I love Byzantine art and I think Conway made a decent job of it. She "translated" mostly mosaics to tempera paintings; some character got lost but all in all, she caught some of the spirit of Byzantine art. It's too Westernized, though, especially compared to the Golden Tarot of the Tsar which uses "authentic" illumination techniques (and accordingly looks much less attractive to Western eyes). The Byzantine is a great deck, and I hope that a new edition will fix the technical problems: too shiny and thick cardstock that warps a bit.
One example for the "Westernization":
compare this card
with the source for the image, the well-known Ravenna mosaic in San Vitale, of Emperor Justinian
It's easy to see that the figure was taken from this mosaic, it's the guy standing at the emperor's right elbow (to his left from our point of view).
Can you see how the artist added just a tiny bit of shadow to the chest, some details to the sleeves, to make them more three-dimensional, realistic and satisfying to the modern eye? And she added undulating landscape under the stretched-out feet to "anchor" the guy on the ground - most Byzantine art has this strange, gravity-defying quality where people seem to levitate from the tips of their toes.
This is no criticism, just the opposite. With subtle technique, the artist allowed the modern, Western eye to find access to Byzantine art.
Considering not only style but also content and substance - Matthews/Conway approach Orthodox Christianity critically, as outsiders who don't reserve a place of privilege to Christian mythologies or ideologies. There is in many tarot decks a non-dogmatic, sometimes subtly subversive undercurrent (Robert Place also constructs decks that undercut Christianity from within Christian iconography, in the Saints Tarot for example).
Atanassov is Bulgarian and has a completely different relationship to the Orthodox Church, his Golden Deck of the Tsar is created from "within".
I hope I'll have a bit time later to dig a bit deeper - both decks are interesting and I'm glad I have both.
One example for the "Westernization":
compare this card
with the source for the image, the well-known Ravenna mosaic in San Vitale, of Emperor Justinian
It's easy to see that the figure was taken from this mosaic, it's the guy standing at the emperor's right elbow (to his left from our point of view).
Can you see how the artist added just a tiny bit of shadow to the chest, some details to the sleeves, to make them more three-dimensional, realistic and satisfying to the modern eye? And she added undulating landscape under the stretched-out feet to "anchor" the guy on the ground - most Byzantine art has this strange, gravity-defying quality where people seem to levitate from the tips of their toes.
This is no criticism, just the opposite. With subtle technique, the artist allowed the modern, Western eye to find access to Byzantine art.
Considering not only style but also content and substance - Matthews/Conway approach Orthodox Christianity critically, as outsiders who don't reserve a place of privilege to Christian mythologies or ideologies. There is in many tarot decks a non-dogmatic, sometimes subtly subversive undercurrent (Robert Place also constructs decks that undercut Christianity from within Christian iconography, in the Saints Tarot for example).
Atanassov is Bulgarian and has a completely different relationship to the Orthodox Church, his Golden Deck of the Tsar is created from "within".
I hope I'll have a bit time later to dig a bit deeper - both decks are interesting and I'm glad I have both.