Stefan Arteni

The East-Central
European
Cultural Model
XVII

SolInvictus Press 2010

Orpheus, Roman Museum of Sabratha, Libya

2
 Stefan Arteni

The East-Central European

Cultural Model
(a revised and illustrated version
of the essay published in
www.asymetria.org , 2010)
XVII

3
Schnutgen museum, Köln, altar frontal of St Ursula, 1170

4
Stefan Arteni
Appendix. Newness.

On the subject of music, Duke Ellington long ago remarked: “There are only two
kinds of music: good music and bad music”. One could have said the same thing
about visual art.

There is nowadays a regime of ‘Equal Aesthetic Rights’, as Boris Groys notes.

Under the contemporary reign of aesthetic equality between all visual forms and
of equal aesthetic value, the proclamation and promotion of ‘new’ art gods and
prophets, ‘new’ icons, ‘novel’ or ‘groundbreaking’ art forms, are part and parcel of
the attempt to create a ‘new’ global culture informed by the aesthetics of politics
and the politics of aesthetics, i.e. by memory erasure, by the neo-leninist kernels
in formal programs and by a sense of ‘avantgarde’ aggressiveness.

Is there anything really new?

There is nothing new under the sun, everything that could be done was done. It
all happened sometime, somewhere. Of course, there were technical limitations,
but somebody did it somewhere at some time. All that has been flaunted as
newness in its varied iterations was known since ancient times: the use of found
and natural objects, collage effects (the use of image fragments), collage (gold
leaf and applied gemstones), relief, poly-material assemblages, shaped surfaces
as supports, installation and performance, instances of montage in simultaneity
(superimposition, embedding, split-screen) and succession or juxtaposition
including comic strip effects, visual poetry, and last but nor least, the depiction of
sex and violence.

5
 Roman inlaid panel portraying the rape of Hylas by nymphs, dating to the first
half of the 4th century AD. This panel is worked in intarsia, with colored marbles,
hard stones, mother of pearl, and glass paste.

6
St Stephen with 3-D stones, St.Benedict monastery, Subiaco, Italy

7
S Maria di Campagna church, Cantello, Varese, Italy

8
S Maria di Campagna church, Cantello, Varese, Italy

9
14th century detached fresco, Florence, Italy, in the Utah Museum of Fine Arts

10
Detail, 14th century detached fresco, Florence, Italy,
in the Utah Museum of Fine Arts

11
Detail, 14th century detached fresco, Florence, Italy,
in the Utah Museum of Fine Arts

12
Detail, 14th century detached fresco, Florence, Italy,
in the Utah Museum of Fine Arts

13
Nardo di Cione, 14th century

14
Altar frontal of Planès, Spain, 12th century

15
Sant Joan de Caselles, Andorra

16
Pacino di Bonaguida, The Chiarito Tabernacle, 1340s

Bartolo di Fredi, 14th century

17
Giovanni del Biondo 14th century

18
Taddeo di Bartolo, 14th-15th centuries

19
Jacobello del Fiore, 14th-15th centuries

20
Antonio and Bartolomeo Vivarini, 15th century

21
Caraffa grotteschi, S Maria sopra Minerva church, Rome, Italy, 1500

22
Caraffa grotteschi, S Maria sopra Minerva church, Rome, Italy, 1500

23
Caraffa grotteschi, S Maria sopra Minerva church, Rome, Italy, 1500

Caraffa grotteschi, S Maria sopra Minerva church, Rome, Italy, 1500

24
Caraffa grotteschi, S Maria sopra Minerva church, Rome, Italy, 1500

Caraffa grotteschi, S Maria sopra Minerva church, Rome, Italy, 1500

25
 Russian Icon, 17th century with 19th century restorations,
chased and repoussé silver oklad with traces of niello, 19th century

26
Russia (?), St Nicholas in a silver oklad, 18th century

27
Byzantine Icon, 11th-13th centuries

Russia (?), 18th century

28
Bulgaria (?), 18th century

29
. Santa Maria del Tiglio church, Gravedona, Italy, 12th century

30
Santa Maria del Tiglio church, Gravedona, Italy, 12th -13th centuries

31
Dobromir the Young zographer, Snagov monastery, Mary's Presentation in the
Temple church, Romania, 1563

32
Strehaia monastery, Holy Trinity church, Romania, 17th century

33
Karanlik Kilise (Dark Church), Göreme, Turkey, 11th century

34
Karanlik Kilise (Dark Church), Göreme, Turkey, 11th century

35
Hosios Loukas monastery, Greece

36
Parma Baptistery, Italy

37
St Nicholas princely court church, Curtea de Argeş, Romania, 14th century

St Nicholas princely court church, Curtea de Argeş, Romania, 14th century

38
St Nicholas princely court church, Curtea de Argeş, Romania, 14th century

39
St Nicholas princely court church, Curtea de Argeş, Romania, 14th century

40
Voroneţ monastery, St George church, Romania, 15th century interior fresco

Voroneţ monastery, St George church, Romania, 15th century interior fresco

41
St John the New monastery, St George church, Suceava, Romania, 16th century

42
Toma from Suceava and his team, zographers, Dormition church, Humor
monastery, Romania, 16th century

43
Probota monastery, St Nicholas church, Romania, 16th century

Probota monastery, St Nicholas church, Romania, 16th century

44
Probota monastery, St Nicholas church, Romania, 16th century

Probota monastery, St Nicholas church, Romania, 16th century

45
Probota monastery, St Nicholas church, Romania, 16th century

46
Moldoviţa monastery, Annunciation church, Romania, 16th century

47
Sofronie and Ion zographers, Suceviţa monastery, Resurrection church,
Romania, 16th century

48
Sofronie and Ion zographers, Suceviţa monastery, Resurrection church,
Romania, 16th century

49
Sofronie and Ion zographers, Suceviţa monastery, Resurrection church,
Romania, 16th century

50
Dobromir the Young zographer, Snagov monastery, Mary's Presentation in the
Temple church, Romania, 1563

51
Dobromir the Young zographer, Snagov monastery, Mary's Presentation in the
Temple church, Romania, 1563

52
St Euthymius monastery, Transfiguration church, Suzdal, Russia,
17th century

53
Gospels of St. Augustine, 6th century

54
Master of the Magdalen, triptych, 13th century

55
Sant'Abbondio basilica, Como, Italy

56
Chapel, Poppi castle, Italy

57
 Gaudenzio Ferrari, ‘Parete Gaudenziana’, 1513,
Santa Maria delle Grazie church, Varallo, Sesia, Italy

58
Cozia monastery, Holy Trinity church, Romania, 14th century (?)

59
Cosimo Rosselli, Last Supper (to the right), Sistine Chapel, Rome, Italy

Cosimo Rosselli, Last Supper, Sistine Chapel, Rome, Italy

60
Bernardino Licinio, 16th century

61
Russia, 18th century

62
 Bulgaria

Russia, 1800

63
Greece, 420 BC

64
 Post-Constantinian period mosaic, Caesarea

A Byzantine mosaic at the Basilica of Moses, Mount Nebo, Jordan

65
Byzantine manuscript of the Hippocratic Oath, 12th century

66
Petruskerk, Zuidbroek, Groningen

67
Phallus, Gumelniţa culture, end 5th millenium BC (Gumelniţa Culture Museum,
Olteniţa, Romania)

68
The Pan Painter, Pan and shepherd, mixing bowl (bell krater), Attic ceramic, red
figure, about 470 BC (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

69
Shuvalov painter, oenochoe, red figure, 430 BC

70
Vase painting, Greece

71
House of the Vetii, Pompeii

Roman fresco, Pompeii

72
Roman fresco, Pompeii

Roman sculpture

73
Pan and the goat, Villa of the Papyri, Herculaneum

74
Leda, Roman mosaic

75
Roman fresco, Pompeii

76
The Warren Cup. Roman, mid-1st century AD

77
Halebid Hindu temple, India, 12th century

78
Khajuraho temple, 950-1150, India

79
Giulio Romano, Jupiter and Olympia, 1527-28, Palazzo Tè, Mantua, Italy

80
Giulio Romano

Albert Marquet

81
Black figure neck amphora depicting Theseus killing the Minotaur attributed to
Group E workshop of Exekias, Athens, 550 BC

82
Agamemnon slain by Aegistheus, Attic red figure calyx krater, 500-450 BC

83
Ixion, Campanian amphora, 4th century BC

84
Medea killing her son, Ixion painter, 4th century BC

85
The punishment of Dirce, House of the Vettii,. Pompeii

86
Hanging of Judas, St Lazare cathedral, Autun, Saône-et-Loire, Burgundy, France

87
Fresco, Mani, Greece

88
Gračanica monastery, Serbia (Kosovo), 14th century

89
 Pietro Cavallini, Simone Martini, Giotto students,
Santa Maria Donnaregina Vecchia church, Naples, Italy, 14 th century

90
 Pietro Cavallini, Simone Martini, Giotto students,
Santa Maria Donnaregina Vecchia church, Naples, Italy, 14 th century

91
Zographer Toma from Suceava and his team, Dormition (Assumption) church,
Humor monastery, Romania, 16th century

Zographer Toma from Suceava and his team, Dormition (Assumption) church,
Humor monastery, Romania, 16th century

92
Voroneţ monastery, St George church, Romania

Voroneţ monastery, St George church, Romania

93
St John the New monastery, St George church, Suceava, Romania, 16th century

St John the New monastery, St George church, Suceava, Romania, 16th century

94
St John the New monastery, St George church, Suceava, Romania, 16th century

St John the New monastery, St George church, Suceava, Romania, 16th century

95
St John the New monastery, St George church, Suceava, Romania, 16th century

St John the New monastery, St George church, Suceava, Romania, 16th century

96
Santa Maria delle Grazie church, Gravedona, Como, Italy, 16th century

97
Santa Maria delle Grazie church, Gravedona, Como, Italy, 16th century

98
Michiel Coxie, 1588, Mechelen, Flanders, Cathedral of Saint Rombout,
martyrdom of St George

99
Michiel Coxie, 1586, Mechelen, Flanders, Cathedral of Saint Rombout,
martyrdom of St Sebastian

100