PHOTIOS KONTOGLOU (1896 - 1965) on Psaltic Liturgical Form

[sp...@erols.com]

PHOTIOS KONTOGLOU (1896 - 1965), a Greek
Orthodox iconographer and author, was born in

Aivali, Asia Minor. After traveling around
the world
he eventually returned to his homeland, but
was
forced to leave after the Asia Minor
catastrophe in
1922 and moved to Athens, Greece.

His writings and icon painting distinguished
him as
a soldier for Christ and struggler for the
spirit of
Orthodox ⌠Romeosini.■ His writings reveal the

Christian-Roman/Byzantine Orthodox spirit of
the
neo-Hellene. His dedication to the
traditional
Orthodox Byzantine Iconographic Art form, at
a
time when even iconographers on Mount Athos
were using Western prototypes, was
instrumental
to the reawakening of Orthodox liturgical art

forms that was to occur, which we now enjoy.

His article, ⌠The Mystic Zion,■ reveals how
the
psaltic liturgical art form of the Church
partakes
of the same spirit. The purpose of the
liturgical
chant is one and the same with iconography,
to be
apocalyptic; to reveal God▓s presence and to
bring
us into His presence.

The Mystic Zion

by Photios Kontoglou

Byzantine art (techni) is for me the art of
arts. I
believe in it as I do religion. I do not deny
this,
but it even gives me great pleasure when,
most of
the time, someone uses it as an accusation.
Only
this art nurtures my soul with its deep and
mysterious powers, it quenches the thirst
which I
feel in the dry desert which surrounds us.
Next to
Byzantine Art, all other art seems to me
light,
⌠distracted by many things,■ while only ⌠one
thing
is needful.■ That one thing, when it is
perceived
by someone, it is understood.

Many times I question myself how man was made

worthy by divine grace to reach the
unteachable,
to express the inexpressible, and to express
it
with means so practical and simple: neither
vain
wisdom, neither foresight, neither false
transcendence with soft delicateness, neither

sentimentalism, theatrical and meaningless.
Everything is serious, contemplative enough,
mystical worlds revealed under phenomenal
worthlessness and simpleness. A trigger
descends
to the depths of the oceans of the soul and,
at
the moment when most think it cannot descend
another fathom, it reaches a world no one can

measure. ⌠Let no profane hand touch■ (Canon
of
the Feast of the Annunciation; Ninth Ode,
First
Troparion.) Whoever does not understand that
mysterious language ⌠setting aside all
worldly
cares,■ will not understand even till the end
of his
life. The root of his soul will remain dry of
the
dew of heaven.

The sweetness of this art is apocalyptic. Men
who
have need of triviality, cannot find anything
other
than≈would be≈rational comments, about
crooked feet, unnatural bodies and the such,
but
how can its deep human content, which is the
holy
of holies, be weighed with such means? And
when
they praise it, then they say the worst,
idiotic
comments, generalities.

For man to commune with that which ⌠is a fire
and
burns the unworthy,■ no one benefits from
those
bulky tools which are called: smartness,
education, rhetoric, diplomacy, analysis,
etc., but
something more honorable is needed, something

which is usually found in the simplest man
and is
some magical characteristic, that reveals to
man
the depth of the divine harmony of the whole.

⌠What do I look upon? None other but the
gentle,
the humble, and the quiet!■ Souls which are
deep
and closed have the hidden privilege to be
initiated into this revelation.

So, he who has this grace, only he
understands the
mystic and unearthly tongue which the East
speaks, Byzantium. In the works of this
⌠mystic
Zion■ he finds the fount and quenches his
thirst,
whosoever burns from the thirst for the
original.

When he enters into a Byzantine chapel, he
expects to find something apocalyptic in its
paintings, something original, something
which
presents mystical things, while he can pass
by a
great European gallery, without satisfying
this
type of desire. It is, however, in the first
drawer
who drew ⌠without prototype■≈according to the

image≈where the true prototype is found,
where
the combination of colors and forms are not
new,
within a perception appointed from before
nature,
but it is the presentation of worlds and
feelings
by totally spiritual means, with the
indefinite pulse
of the hand, a bowing of the head, clothing
where
the threads disappear in an air which blows
beyond the earth, a color which reminds of
the
depth of the sea, an exotic rock, a wild tree
which
brings you the mystical composition of the
world.
The colors and the forms retain their
evocative
power because they are not recreated by the
artist to represent something natural, but
they are
utilized in such a way that their identity
and their
apocalyptic power becomes more intense.
Whoever feels this will be left passionless
to the
external charms and pointless perfections.

The works of Byzantine art are the most
apocalyptic man had done, architecturally,
poetically, musically and artistically: the
⌠O
Gladsome Light,■ poem of Athenogenous the
martyr, the rolling melody of the Cherubic or

Communion Hymns, immerse the soul into the
mystical half-light of the East. This
mysticism has
no relation to the infirm mysticism of the
North,
but is full of health, happiness and
richness, even
as it is ascetic and austere.

One rich example of
apocalyptic
drawing is the icon of
Saint John the
Forerunner. This scene
was created
during the years of
Turkish occupation
(Turkocratia), that is,
a period
condemned by art
history. Nevertheless,
it is the most
astonishing
accomplishment! Saint
John is shown as
a wild bird, a bird of
prey, bony, with
hands and feet of sticks, sun-baked, with
some
great wings of a vulture. He stands perched
in a
deserted place, on soot and dry rocks, in one

hand he holds the mystical hand blessing, and
in
the other he holds a paper on which he writes
his
complaint, as if telling it to Christ who
bends
down from heaven. In one corner, planted on a

dry rock , is a wild tree which is troubled,
tortured, like the Forerunner, an oak tree
with a
hatchet stuck into its trunk. His clothing is
as
green oil, a symbolic color made to match the

face that wears it.

How many times, I ask, was man made worthy to

create such sights, such fearful works as the

Forerunner and the ⌠O Gladsome Light,■ poem
of
Athenogenous the martyr!

Original article in Greek is ©
⌠Astir,■ Athens,
Greece, and found in Volume 3 of
the WORKS of

Photios Kontoglou.