I was given a gift last night, a
work of art that encompassed a half stravraton of
Manuel II (1391-1425). I picked the coin and my wife; she picked the artist. I ended up with a beautiful gift.
I
work and sell art for a living, and it has made me very attracted to the late
style of
Byzantine Art, In the last few years I became attracted to the philosophy of Spiritualism.
Byzantine coinage with its many abstract
portraits are created under this philosophy, its
Apex of the artform was during the Palaeologan period (1259-1453)
" The essence of Spiritualism is that all physical things hinder the Cosmic connection." Another way to look at it is all beauty is from within. so all beauty is the ultimate simplicity, the Eastern
Romans perfected the art, Abstraction is beauty and a channel to the soul.
The original teachings of Spiritualism are not
Christian, the earliest writings date to Plotinus around 250 AD. The basic philosophies of
his teachings have been added to many faiths,
Judaism, Christianity, Gnostic and Islam. For more on Spiritualism on coinage I recommend these works, the second from
Christopher T Connell, he diagramed the ultimate
portrait of
Christ in a Spiritualist nature. He broke the
portraits of
Christ to 3 circles, 2 semicircles and 30 lines. (He assisted me when I first started collecting
Byzantine coinage, I think of him fondly now.)
Vol 03 No. 11 November 1989 -
The Celator -
VCoins Community
https://social.vcoins.com/files/file/29-vol-03-no-11-november-1989/https://social.vcoins.com/files/file/55-vol-05-no-12-december-1991/