4.2 Icon and modern art
The revived interest in Byzantine artistic production, as represented by the Byzantine icon, is rooted in an acknowledgment of Orthodox panel painting appreciation which came from the acclaimed French artist Henri Matisse (1869–1954), and was directed specifically towards Russian icons. Matisse visited Moscow in 1911, where he viewed the Oustroukhov collection. The next day, Ilya Oustroukhov wrote to a friend that Matisse was delighted with each and every icon. The narrative mentions that Matisse was so excited he could not sleep that night (Spira, 2008, p. 54). The excitement is confirmed by Matisse’s own recording of this experience:
Yesterday I saw a collection of old Russian icons. They are really great art. I am in love with their moving simplicity which, to me, is closer and dearer than Fra Angelico. In these icons the soul of the artists who painted them opens like a mystical flower. And from them, we ought to learn how to understand art.
The place of icons in modern art is a different matter, and ought to be explored separately. For the purpose of this course, however, it is important to note that taste is an ever-changing thing, since it mirrors cultural circumstances. The opposing opinions of iconic figures on the same subject – in this case, with Vasari in the sixteenth century and Matisse in the early twentieth century – is a manifestation of this rule. Our obligation is to be aware that the opinions and preferences held today are not the axioms of tomorrow.
Perhaps the changed attitude towards Byzantine icons, a mark of ‘shedding’ Vasari’s and Gibbon’s condemnations is reflected in the very ‘hype’ and constant use of the word ‘iconic’ – which the Oxford English Reference Dictionary defines as ‘of or having the nature of an image of portrait’. While the dictionary also mentions ‘(of a statue) following conventional type’, the word is used to describe something worth noticing and worth commenting upon; anything assigned ‘iconic’ status is identifiable and special, just as the religious icons are recognisable. The fact that it is associated with ‘celebrities’ (of any species, form, shape and medium) and a range of ‘household names’ familiar to a wider audience, would suggest that the word does not carry negative connotations. One could argue that the overuse of the word is perhaps leaning towards the other side of the spectrum, since if we describe everything as ‘iconic’, we remove the special status the word holds.